Asana is training

Try sitting cross-legged on the floor without any support. Most likely, you’ll find it difficult to stay fully relaxed after a relatively short time. Being able to sit down anywhere with ease and stability, and get back up again without difficulty, is a nice feature — whether in the park, around a campfire, or on your living room floor. But it is also a prerequisite for a fulfilling yoga practice.
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What we most often refer to as yoga in our part of the world is actually Asana, which represents only a small part of the larger system of Yoga. Asana literally means “seat” and, within Yoga, is defined as a seated posture characterized by stability and ease. Traditionally, this is the aim of Asana practice — what we generally refer to as “doing yoga”.
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No matter our personal motivation for practicing yoga — whether we seek greater flexibility, a deeper sense of freedom, or spiritual enlightenment — we should remember that no yoga posture is a goal in itself. Asana is physical training. Training for the ability to sit still without support. Sitting still and upright without pain, discomfort, restlessness, or irritation, requires a strong and flexible body. Of course, Yoga is much more than physical exercise.
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According to the Yoga Sutra (one of the most important texts in the yoga tradition), yoga is defined, among other things, as “citta-vṛtti-nirodha” — the cessation of the restless movements of the mind. At the same time, yoga is a systematic method for gaining mastery over the mind’s fluctuations — in other words, developing the ability to consciously access inner stillness. Yoga is therefore both a practical method and the goal of the practice itself.

The “higher” limbs of the Yoga system — such as Pranayama (working with energy through the breath) and Meditation — turn the practice further inward. But they require you to be able to sit upright without support for extended time, without your body resisting and craving your attention. If this can become your motivation — if you can let go of the desire to achieve perfect yoga postures — you may profit much more from your Asana practice.
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Practice and all is coming. Let your yoga practice be a goal in itself, and one day you may find yourself sitting with strength, ease, and liberated.