“Ahimsa,” the Sanskrit word for non-violence asks us to be kind to others and the Earth, but most especially to ourselves. For how we treat ourselves reflects how we treat others.
In order to practice ahimsa, we must attempt to lay down our preconceptions, ignorance and stereotype’s. It is, in many ways, easier to navigate the modern world in a haze, to become oblivious or even numb to the long-term effects of our actions, to consider the real cost of our behaviours and relationships. Yoga asks us to put this tendency aside and look clearly at who we are and what we do. From a place of simplicity, we can focus on our desires and the nature of our attachments, our consumer habits, and our need for excess and ask ourselves whether the benefits outweigh the harm to others.
Ahimsa asks us to be mindful of thoughts and feelings. Thoughts naturally move in and out of our minds. Whilst these don’t necessarily cause harm, excessive rumination, negative beliefs and toxic dynamics can translate into acts of ‘violence’ in how we engage in the world and with people.
We can live our lives in an outwardly healthy way, eating well and exercising and whilst these are, vital to our wellbeing, if we are engaged in a space that feels negative from within this can still impact on our mental health. Negative thinking sends out messages to the body that trigger the fight or flight response. Thoughts do this even if there’s no real outside threat.
The fight or flight response secretes cortisol, often referred to as the stress hormone. This, in turn, lowers the immune system, and makes us more likely to experience physical and emotional difficulties, ill health and exhaustion.
The purity of ahimsa is three-fold. It asks of us to express no harm in thought, word, or deed. Speech is perhaps the hardest aspect to consider. The modern lexicon has come to include a specific phrase to describe the many ‘insignificant’ ways that we infuse our speech with violence, often very subtle violence, termed micro-aggressions. When we are caught up in our ego, in the delusion of our special self, in order to protect this idea we may we fall back on ways of speaking and engaging, which belittle or diminish others in order to provide ourselves with a sense of importance or omnipotence.
A little known practice; a precursor to mindfulness, I imagine we could all do with a little Ahimsa in our lives.