There’s a big difference between practicing yoga and doing yoga. From my perspective here is how I would describe the two.*

Doing yoga is fun. It’s something that anybody can do but only certain people can do well. Those are usually people that are genetically predisposed to be strong, flexible and generally athletic. Other people can also do it but to a lesser extent. It’s something that you can be better or worse at than other people. Doing yoga is something that you can do as another activity in your weekly schedule. Instead of going to movies or dinner or dance class you can do yoga. It’s something that you do to unwind from your busy day, often on your way to or from something else.

Doing yoga involves assuming various postures based on what you see other people around you doing, on what you see demonstrated by the yoga instructor at the front of the class or what you have figured out is meant by, for example, adho mukha svanasana. Doing yoga is mentally challenging because it’s so physically challenging.

Practicing yoga can also be fun (although it’s not the word I would use). It’s something that everybody can do but it’s difficult to say if someone does it well or not because it’s mostly happening on the inside. There is definitely an intention to perfect the practice but it’s more about the effort than the result, and “[r]egarding perfection, that’s a very difficult question.”** Practicing yoga is different from most things you might do in your weekly schedule. And yet it can inform the way in which you do all those other things.

Practicing yoga involves assuming various configurations of the body and mind based on the detailed instructions and demonstrations elucidated but your teacher. It requires an active, participatory learning on the part of the student where the instructions are only internalised through questioning, experimentation, application and reflection.** There is a dialogue between teacher and student and the only purpose the other people in the class serve is to help create a more complete perspective of the subject being discussed. Practicing yoga is challenging because it requires wholehearted attention.

Doing yoga is an activity. Practicing yoga is a discipline.

*In my humble opinion
**Mr. BKS Iyengar
***“As the wise test gold by burning, cutting, and rubbing it […] so are you to accept my words after examining them and not merely out of regard for me.” – Buddha