Ahimsa

As I've been reading about the Eight Limbs of Yoga and writing my papers, I've been trying to digest, journal and/or blog about my findings.  One of my new favorite yoga books solely focuses on the first two limbs, yama and niyama (restraint and observance).  Each of these two limbs has five separate "branches."  As I read about each branch, I've been trying to put these practices into my daily life.

The first branch of yama is ahimsa.  While this technically means "non-harming," I like to think of it as its more positive opposite: how can we heal others and ourselves and thus find peace?  Harming can be any form of physical abuse to any living creature, as well as hurtful words, thoughts or actions towards others or ourselves.  Yeah, that makes it a little more real.

For some people, the first hurdle to overcome is how we think about and treat ourselves.  Are you constantly putting yourself down, focusing on your failures or comparing yourself to others?  Author Adele explains, "how we treat ourselves is in truth how we treat those around us" (pg. 29).  So basically, if you treat yourself like shit...you get the picture.

This is the spot that really hit home for me: "If you are a taskmaster with yourself, others will feel your whip" (in my case, my students say I am mean, for example, which is fine).  I hope my friends and co-workers do not feel my whip though!  Yikes!

The last part of ahimsa that speaks to me is worrying about others, which brought me to a realization that I needed to apologize to my husband: I worry about him, which I find normal because I love him!  Ahimsa says that worry towards another person is a lack of faith in that person.  "We both devalue and insult others when we worry about them," states Adele (pg. 35).

Let's cycle back to our original question: how can we heal and bring peace to others and ourselves?  (I'd like to think I am a peaceful person, but my control freak-ness proves otherwise.)  We must first learn to love and have compassion with ourselves, even through our failures and struggles.  This means forgiving ourselves and meeting all situations with love.  So don't forget to pause, breathe, and love.  And maybe yoga in there somewhere :)

Long quote but so worth the read, I promise:
Life is amazing.  And then it is awful.  And then it's amazing again.  
And in between the amazing and the awful, its ordinary and mundane and routine.  
Breathe in the amazing,
hold on through the awful,
and relax and exhale during the ordinary.
That's just living heartbreaking, 
soul-healing,
amazing,
awful,
ordinary life.
And it's breathtakingly beautiful.
-LR Knost