Ahimsa - Non-Violence

Yamas are the first limb of the yogic eight limbed path. Their are five yamas that Patanjali describes in the yoga sutra.  The first yama is ahimsa or non-violence.  Generally ahimsa is thought of as compassion for all living things. It's a general mindset of "do no wrong" in your daily life. It means kindness, consideration, and compassion in everything we do and in our dealings with other people. 

This concept sounds simple enough. Finding kindness and compassion within yourself and giving it to others around you. How difficult could that be? Now lets throw in the added twist of being kind and compassionate to yourself as well. In all of your thoughts about yourself on a regular basis.  I would be willing to bet that that's a tall order for most people.  I know it is for me!

Most of us dont walk around getting into physical confrontations with people when they make us unhappy (MOST of us). However, most of us do walk around thinking negative thoughts about others.  If you are someone who is reading this, reflecting, and thinking "I have no idea what she's talking about", well good for you. But I'll put myself out there to say that I do think negatively about people way more often than I should.  Then I step into a yoga studio and almost immediately begin to think negative thoughts about myself during my yoga practice.  Those negative thoughts about myself follow me around throughtout my day more often than not.  Ultimately I would say that I am seriously lacking in my practice of ahimsa!

I've decided to set some goals for myself in order to make ahimsa a priority in my life.  First, in my dealings with others, my goal is to take a deep breath and really try to put myself in other peoples shoes.  I think that taking a few seconds to breath and think about how the other person must be feeling would really help me to find compassion.  We all see things from different perspectives. While I may not immediately understand someone else's perspective or reaction to something, I know I can find it in me to understand. I don't want to expend my energy being irritated or upset. I want to send positive energy to those around me. 

Secondly, in my attitude towards myself, I'm working on accepting myself for exactly who I am right here in this moment. I'm working on being kind to myself. I am my own harshest critic! I know it's important to have goals and work towards them. I'm also realizing that it's equally important to appreciate where you've come from. I find that generally I'm so focused on pushing forward that I don't always appreciate and respect the here and now.  I'm constantly thinking about how I could have done better or I could be further along in whatever endeavor I'm working on 

I'll be making a conscious effort incorporating ahimsa into my daily life, in everything I do. I'm sure I'll have my up's and down's with it. I'll be sure to monitor my progress!