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AHIMSA YAMA: Creating Less Harm

There are 10 Yamas and 10 Niyamas - daily values and practices from ancient Vedic Sanskrit texts that help us reach our full potential for personal, spiritual, and professional growth, and to liberate us from mental, spiritual, and physical suffering.  This month we are finding the ways and the best resources to implement a daily dose of spiritual teachings to help us self-soothe and self-regulate, protecting our inner peace and effectiveness.

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This month we are implementing the first yama into our life, Ahimsa - daily practice of doing less harm, and self-Inquiry to learn about our unconscious patterns that might cause suffering, separation, and anxiety. 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, I am digging into the obvious and not-so-obvious paths to creating less harm.  Non-violence may look like not blaming others for our distress.  Non-violence can only be possible when we let others to be who they are.

 

7 Ways of Daily Ahimsa Practice:
 

1. Community: being inclusive, equally respectful, honest & generous towards all. Letting go of judgment - knowing what I judge points me to the parts of myself that need work & healing
2. Relationships: asserting my values clearly and setting value-honoring boundaries (work & personal)
3. Health: prioritize the time everyday to replenish and strengthen my body and spirit
4. Taking personal responsibility for my shortcomings & apologize with ease every single time (join my upcoming series on how to start eliminating our state of ‘I’m upset because’)
5. Let go of victim mentality & blaming people for my emotional distress (join my upcoming series on how to start seeing this unconscious habit we have of being upset at others)
6. Forgive myself & others 100% everyday. EVERYONE, EVERY DAY.
7. Environment: Never-ever buy water in plastic bottles, and remove other single-use plastic daily use like shampoos/soaps

What does doing less harm mean to you? What can you commit to today? 
Natasha
www.glowyogasf.com