Ahimsa (Sanskrit: अहिंसा) is a term meaning ‘not to injure’ and ‘compassion’. The word is derived from the Sanskrit root hiṃs – to strike; hiṃsā is injury or harm, a-hiṃsā is the opposite of this, i.e. cause no injury, do no harm. Ahimsa is also referred to as non-violence, and it applies to all living beings – including all animals – according to many Indian religions.

Ahimsa. Isn’t that a lovely word? Kindness and non-violence to all living things. Respect for all living beings and belief that they are all connected. In essence, peace (man).

But can we expect to find compassion for all other living things if we can’t even find it for ourselves? Self-compassion entails being warm and understanding toward ourselves when we suffer, fail, or feel inadequate, rather than ignoring our pain or punishing ourselves with self-criticism.  Self-compassionate people recognize that being imperfect, failing, and experiencing life difficulties is inevitable, so they tend to be gentle with themselves when confronted with painful experiences rather than getting angry when life falls short of set ideals. People cannot always be or get exactly what they want. When this reality is denied or fought against, suffering increases in the form of stress, frustration and self-criticism.  When this reality is accepted with sympathy and kindness, greater emotional equanimity is experienced.

So how does this self-compassion transfer to our yoga practice? How many times have we pushed ourselves beyond our physical and emotional capabilities in order to achieve a yoga pose that was beyond our reach, just because the rest of the class were appearing to nail it (or because the teacher told us that was where we were going)? I know I have, on many occasions. And how often have we injured ourselves as a result (hopefully not too many but it happens). In my many months of yoga teacher training I used some pretty harsh self-criticism when I couldn’t achieve the poses I thought were important to my practice. And I still do this from time to time when I see other teachers posting videos of their progress in the latest handstand or legs behind the head crap. Who needs to see that stuff? Save your personal progress for yourself and give yourself realistic and necessary goals. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with setting goals and challenges, but at the expense of our bodies, our mental wellbeing, our sanity? No thanks.

My constant advice to my students during yoga practice is to be mindful, to listen to your bodies and respect what you can do today. I have to look after myself – if I can’t use my body then I can’t do my job. Progress does not come from harm or injury. The journey that yoga presents helps us to understand ourselves, our bodies, our natural physical limits and encourages us to work with them rather than against them.

 

In my first blog post I wrote about ‘Santosha’ and the art of acceptance. But how can we expect to achieve self-acceptance if we don’t practice self-compassion first? Once we achieve this then we can work on compassion towards everyone (thing) else. And that’s where it starts to get really complicated!