Ahimsa Yama: 10 Yamas & Niyamas

Ahimsa Yama - Creating Less Harm

There are 10 Yamas and 10 Niyamas - yogic take on human values and ethical practices that help us reach our full potential for personal, spiritual, and professional growth, and to liberate us from the repetitive cycle of suffering. When we live in contradiction to the highest values, when we avoid taking the higher road - we get stuck in a rat.

This month, Earth care month we are implementing Ahimsa yama into our life - the daily practice of doing less harm, and self-Inquiry to learn about our unconscious patterns that cause suffering, and dis-ease. Leaning into Ahimsa this month, we can adopt smarter consumption habits to take better care of our planet Earth collectively. We will look into our own false beliefs about self-medicating and substance abuse to reveal the stories we tell ourselves to make that self-harm acceptable. With regular self-inquiry practice, we get to observe our own behavior, the inner workings of our mind, how we relate to situations, what drives our reactions, and which beliefs keep us in the estate of resistance, rumination, and worries. This month of Ahimsa-focused practice, we'll be digging into the obvious and not-so-obvious paths to creating less harm. Non-violence can only be possible when we take responsibility for our own distress, physical, emotional, and financial.

7 Ways of Daily Ahimsa Practice:

Health: what external substances (pills, vapes, plants, alcohol, sugar) do I abuse everyday? Addictions are always a hidden way of harm, and can only be conquered by TRUTH and ACCEPTANCE, followed by using professional help. Asking for help is the smartest and most loving thing we can do for ourselves, our loved ones, and our community.
Take personal responsibility for any conflict & apologize with ease every single time.
Let go of victim mentality & blaming people for our distress, emotional or financial (join my upcoming workshop on how to start seeing this unconscious habit we have of being upset at others).
Forgive yourself and others 100% everyday. EVERYONE, EVERY DAY. This is a follow-up to taking honest action on steps 1-3.
Environment: Never ever buy drinks in plastic bottles, and reduce or try to completely eliminate other single-use plastic daily use like shampoos, soaps, toothpaste, cleaning supplies, and food packaging. Buy food that is in season and comes from local sources as much as possible. Buy food that is in season and comes from local sources as much as possible. Watch my VIDEO below with some zero-waste products that I love, and please join Caitlin & me for International Ocean Film Festival April 13-16 >
Community: being inclusive, respectful, honest & generous towards all. All our unhealthy relationships, competition, fear of each other, racism and the need to control one another create psychological trauma that contributes to all diseases, cancer, and immune dysfunction. Know that what we judge and conflict with only points us to the part of ourselves that needs work & healing.
Relationships: following the Golden Rule, or the Law of Karma: our actions will always cause a consequence. If someone's done you 'wrong' - contemplate when may you have unconsciously done that previously yourself. Treat others as you'd like to be treated. Assert your values with clear communication and boundaries, and do your part to act on them accordingly.

What other ways I did not mention but would be your way to create less harm? Contemplate it this month and share it with us in classes!

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