This post hit me in the chest. The way you frame the Yamas—not as a set of external rules but as something internal to cultivate—feels like the only way I’ve ever been able to approach them. Otherwise, they become another impossible standard, another list of ways I’m falling short.
Ahimsa has been a complicated one for me. Not because I struggle with being cruel to others, but because I’ve spent most of my life being relentlessly unkind to myself. The things I say to myself in my own mind are things I would never say to another living being. It’s taken me years to realize that non-violence isn’t just about not hurting others—it’s about not being at war with myself. And like you said, when I’m depleted, when I’m stressed, when life is pressing in from all sides, that fragile practice of compassion is the first thing to go.
And then there’s the piece about no one being above these principles. That one got me. Because I’ve spent a lifetime feeling like an outsider—like I was somehow just bad at being human, like other people had an instruction manual I missed out on. But yoga reminds me again and again: these teachings belong to everyone. The practice meets us exactly where we are. No one is disqualified from this work, and no one is exempt from doing it.
I needed this today. Thank you for sharing it. I already know you’re someone I want to be in conversation with.
Thank you for such a heartfelt comment! What you say about ahimsa is exactly how I feel about it. I really don't think many people consider themselves "violent," so they automatically think they don't have to do any work on "non-violence." They can check that one off the list and move onto the next one. But as you say, it's so much more than that. Excited to stay connected!
The phrase in the video about the hands being an extension of the heart -- when people -watching yesterday I was noticing how people often walk with stiff arms and hands and recognizing that I do this too. Maybe we don't know what to do with our hands because we don't know what to do with our hearts? Love the compassion mudra. Thank you.
What a thoughtful observation! We also carry a lot of tension in our shoulders, hence the phrase "carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders," which probably contributes to the stiffness of the arms when we walk. But you're right, it all starts from the energy in the heart!
This post hit me in the chest. The way you frame the Yamas—not as a set of external rules but as something internal to cultivate—feels like the only way I’ve ever been able to approach them. Otherwise, they become another impossible standard, another list of ways I’m falling short.
Ahimsa has been a complicated one for me. Not because I struggle with being cruel to others, but because I’ve spent most of my life being relentlessly unkind to myself. The things I say to myself in my own mind are things I would never say to another living being. It’s taken me years to realize that non-violence isn’t just about not hurting others—it’s about not being at war with myself. And like you said, when I’m depleted, when I’m stressed, when life is pressing in from all sides, that fragile practice of compassion is the first thing to go.
And then there’s the piece about no one being above these principles. That one got me. Because I’ve spent a lifetime feeling like an outsider—like I was somehow just bad at being human, like other people had an instruction manual I missed out on. But yoga reminds me again and again: these teachings belong to everyone. The practice meets us exactly where we are. No one is disqualified from this work, and no one is exempt from doing it.
I needed this today. Thank you for sharing it. I already know you’re someone I want to be in conversation with.
Thank you for such a heartfelt comment! What you say about ahimsa is exactly how I feel about it. I really don't think many people consider themselves "violent," so they automatically think they don't have to do any work on "non-violence." They can check that one off the list and move onto the next one. But as you say, it's so much more than that. Excited to stay connected!
The phrase in the video about the hands being an extension of the heart -- when people -watching yesterday I was noticing how people often walk with stiff arms and hands and recognizing that I do this too. Maybe we don't know what to do with our hands because we don't know what to do with our hearts? Love the compassion mudra. Thank you.
What a thoughtful observation! We also carry a lot of tension in our shoulders, hence the phrase "carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders," which probably contributes to the stiffness of the arms when we walk. But you're right, it all starts from the energy in the heart!