Yamas for the 21st Century an 8 part series: Part #1 Ahimsa

What about that little voice in your head? You know the one. Always has an opinion, can make you completely redo your hair or change your entire outfit and SOMETIMES it gets so loud that you cancel plans entirely and just stay home instead. I know that my voice has said some seriously f*%$ed up shit about me and it would make my cheeks red if I admitted some of it out loud. The words my self critic uses definitely don’t follow the yama, ahimsa. That mean comparison at work; ‘you’ll never get that promotion because you’re lazy’, with friends; ‘you know they all talk about how annoying you are when you go to the toilet’ and on the mat at yoga; ‘I don’t know why she even bothers…she can barely move because of the size of her belly,’ isn’t looking out for your best interest. It’s only goal is to aid in self sabotage.

This is all compounded by the pressure of social media. A constant barrage of healthy food pictures, perfect hair pictures, happy family pictures and perfect yoga posture pictures…how can we measure up? In sanskrit this voice or these imprint are called ‘samskaras’ and they can inform the way we think and behave. Part of practicing ahimsa is noting these thoughts, this voice, and taking action to change them and ignore them. Yoga is ‘yoga chitta vrtti niirodha’ the cessation of the modifications of the mind. Or so cleverly put in the book ‘yoga is owning up to your own bullshit!’ We’ve all got it. I’ve got LOADS of my own bullshit.

One of the ways I have started battling the negative voice in my head is a gratitude journal. I am a naturally negative person. I always have been. The glass is ALWAYS half empty. I don’t enjoy this part of my personality and I wanted to change it. My current coach at the time, Pandora Paloma, told me to start a gratitude journal and write 20 things each night I was grateful for. TWENTY THINGS! How can one have that many. At the beginning I could come up with about 5 and then it was ‘I am breathing’, ‘Harriet and I are still married’ ‘Hudson is cute.’ But as time went on it became easier and easier to write more things I was grateful for. It wasn’t that I was all the sudden super lucky and living my best life it was that I was starting to shift my mindset. I was going through my day noticing the good rather than fixating on the bad. When something good would happen I would take note in my head and remind myself of that for my journal. I became more tuned into the positive and I honestly went to bed every night feeling more happy and content. I was living a more ahimsa life.

With everything we do we should start with the intention. If the intention is to help, to heal or to aid than this is ahimsa. If the intention is something else, to make someone jealous, to lie or to belittle, even if it’s not intended than aren’t we causing harm? We can also go as far as to examine our diet, something that is becoming more and more necessary with the change to our environment. Vegetarian, vegan, organic, eating in season and avoiding single use plastics are all ways to practice ahimsa. Food and diet are extremely controversial and you will find it difficult to get a collection of people together who wholeheartedly agree on one way of eating that is best for us nutritionally and environmentally. Perhaps just starting to think about where ahimsa comes into play with our diet is the first step. Perhaps you don’t want to stop eating eggs but you purchase free range only OR get a chicken yourself. Maybe you want to still eat meat but you eat less and purchase only grass fed and free range. Maybe you can’t afford organic all the time but you start a vegetable garden of your own this summer.

We don’t have to be perfect and go in 100% vegan, organic, plastic free and whole foods. This is difficult to do and has a very high failure rate. It all comes back to intention again. Start small. Start making more intentional choices about the foods you eat, about where you get your food and what makes you happy and less guilty eating it. I’ve recently cut out meat from my diet. This was an easy change for me as I have never been that driven by meat. I still eat fish sometimes but plan on reducing or eliminating this in the future. My biggest challenge will be cutting out dairy, more specifically cheese. I love it. I may never stop eating cheese completely and I guess I am okay with that. One day I would love to grow my own vegetables and herbs and maybe even have a chicken too, if Hudson and the chicken can make friends!