Ahimsa Meditation

Connect with yourself through the first Yama in the 8-limbed Yoga practice. | Ahimsa - non-violence, compassion. | In this meditation, we reflect on our energies, words, and how these affect us + others. We work to bring in greater softness with ourselves so that we can flourish, grow, and be softer with those around us. Happy meditating!
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Transcript

I'd just like to give you some time to find your place either in a seated position or lying down on your back.

There's no right or wrong way to take shape,

Just take shape in a way that feels sustainable,

Comfortable.

Something that feels like it works for you to allow yourself to really settle in and soften and soften enough that you're able to go inwards and sit in a place of curiosity and inquiry.

And if you need to make adjustments as we move along,

You're more than welcome to.

You can do your best to find a comfortable seat or lying down in a place that you don't need to move.

But if you do,

Don't feel like that's wrong or that you shouldn't be moving.

Everything is allowed and nothing is static.

Everything is fluid.

And once you feel that you've found that place,

Often we take a kind of gander through your body.

And this starts with the contact points of your body on the mat,

On the floor,

Maybe in your bed,

Whatever your surfaces that you've landed on.

See if you can just take a general wander through and find those parts of yourself that are making contact with earth and with rooting.

And you don't need to do anything with this feeling,

But what you could start to do is build trust with the prop,

The floor,

Whatever it is that is beneath you.

And this trust slowly but surely will allow you to really open and relax.

And so if you would like to bring further weight into your hips and just let them go,

Let them be there and allow them to just be.

No grasping,

No holding.

They're just there.

Feel that out.

Maybe your feet are on the mat,

Maybe your crossed legs are on the mat,

The sides of your shins.

And as you start to begin this time to go inwards,

We're going to bring some softness into the parts of yourself that are typically grasping and unconsciously grasping.

You might not notice that you are holding there.

And so let's soften your chest space front and your back body where your heart lies.

And then let's find some space and opening and relaxation through the tops of your shoulders.

Maybe you want to pick them up close to your ears and then roll them down your back on an exhale and let that really go.

Use the exhalation to soften.

If you need one more,

Take one more.

Let's relax through your throat space and your neck,

Your front side and back of your neck.

And what is supportive and helpful in your journey inwards and to allow yourself to be soft with yourself is a relaxation through your face.

And so oftentimes in yoga practice,

Especially a physical practice,

We do have an engagement of everything below our shoulders.

We do our best to keep our face contented and soft and unconcerned.

And so let's bring this into your world here.

Let's find some space in your jaw and soften your teeth.

Relax the roof of your mouth.

Relax your tongue.

Let it land.

See if you can bring in this concept of allowing for allowing is where all of your acceptance and healing and journey on this pathway lies.

Open your cheeks.

Relax the corners of your eyes and your eye sockets.

Allow your eyebrows to relax and maybe even enough that they slightly feel like they come apart from one another.

Soften behind and in front of your ears.

Relax through your forehead,

See if it can maybe even become a little bit expansive.

And as you do,

You find your breath.

Now this doesn't need any manipulation,

Focus or change.

It could just be noticed and that's it.

Notice a following exhale here.

Notice an inhalation here.

Follow out the exhale.

Allow in the inhale.

Exhale here,

Release.

Let it go.

Allow it to be audible and find an inhalation.

And carry this with you.

This is the only thing to be noticed right now in this space.

And on our yogic pathway and going through the limbs of yoga and what we pay attention to,

What we practice,

What we notice and what we bring into our lives as we start to learn and start to live your yogic practices.

Our starting place is ourselves and an analyzation of how we go about our lives and how we are reflected in the world,

How our words,

Actions,

Choices,

Energies,

How they matter.

And your starting place in a limbic system of yoga are the yamas and these are ethical practices and observances.

The first one throughout that journey is ahimsa.

And so we're going to do a little bit of thought and pondering around ahimsa.

Ahimsa translates to nonviolence or compassion.

And already that might already land for you in some way.

Don't judge it.

Just allow it.

Sometimes it's the first thing that you think of that is the one that matters the most to us.

That is the one that one of my teachers taught me is the one that you need to nurture.

And so we bring in this thought of compassion.

And you're going to start with yourself here for as we know it matters how you learn and evolve and grow and change and how you approach yourself and the words that you choose to use towards yourself and the thoughts that you choose to have towards yourself and the ones that you don't choose that have been brought to you by someone else that you know,

Someone in your family,

Someone in your life,

Someone who told you something that you don't personally believe that you've been convinced is true,

That maybe is critical,

That isn't met with a little bit of compassion.

It's just a judgment and it's something that weighs on you.

So this is a great place for you to kind of ponder and wonder on who are you really if you remove that idea that that thing that you've been told about yourself that you would never tell yourself.

Find an exhale,

Just let it go.

Let it be what it needs to be.

Use your next inhalation to breathe in just enough that it's nourishing,

Not straining,

Just enough.

Exhale,

Let it go.

And so the ways that we bring in Ahimsa and compassion when it starts with us is changing this narrative,

Working to observe your mind,

Working to observe also what you say out loud,

Harsh words about yourself,

Even in even in a joke.

You may think of a few occurrences where you've called yourself something even if it's supposed to be funny.

And know that these things matter and that they are vibrations and that it makes a difference to your well-being,

How you speak about yourself and how you speak to yourself and in the stories that you have lived.

Where could you have thought a little bit nicer about yourself instead of being critical about the choice you made,

About the words you used.

And know that at the core of it all,

You know that you are a good person,

That you care to help or make change,

That you care to learn about yourself,

That you care to do better or else you wouldn't be here.

And so sometimes in our lived experiences when you're out there in the world spending time with others or your family or just with a random person that you've run into,

You can think kind of heavy thoughts or give yourself a hard time for being potentially rude or mean to somebody or that you are being short or emotional.

And know that that's okay and that you can hold space and compassion for yourself when you have been critical,

When you have been potentially rude and you feel bad about it.

Know that that's coming from a place of protection,

Of a long line of trying to have relationship with this person.

And you can hold compassion for yourself in learning and practicing and knowing that whatever your reaction was,

Was okay.

And it's all you knew at the time.

We have to work with that often,

That it's what we knew and it's the best that we could bring at the time.

And in comes this acceptance and that word allowing to allow yourself to forgive yourself,

But to allow yourself to just be what that was,

Whatever your reaction was,

Whatever you've brought to your own world.

And through acceptance and allowing,

They're always neighbor with patience and softness with yourself,

Softness towards your choices.

And know that every thing that you've possibly done,

That maybe you want to be forgiven for or that was not your maybe best moment in your mind,

That they are an opportunity to learn that it's okay to have a kind of bad day.

Maybe you don't yet learn from them,

But know that they are there for you to learn.

They're there as guides and teachers,

Just as much as your physical teacher is there for you.

These life lessons and if you want to call them mistakes,

They're there to teach you more than anyone else could ever teach you.

That's the point.

And so as you sit in this seat of meditation here,

You can really start to bring in the idea and this love for yourself that you really just need you to grow and that all the work that your teachers have done and all the work that you've done thus far has come from this place inside of yourself.

And so you get this little kudos as you watch yourself do a little bit better in your compassionate thought towards your actions,

Your words and the things you've experienced.

And that slowly you start to adapt that it's okay that you're not okay.

It's okay to be sad or hurt or lonely or romantically without or lonely.

Everything is okay.

There's no real duality.

There is no real good or bad and however you show up is exactly how you are and that's not right or wrong.

Everything is just how it is.

And again,

Coming back to what you've been thinking about mainly,

What scenarios have come up for you?

Is it a lot of the same moment?

Is it a lot of the same maybe action or words that you use with others?

Is it something you do that is harming of yourself?

Has it been an array of different things that have come up for you now?

And a reminder that those are the things that you need to nurture.

They're the ones that are showing themselves to you in this place of stillness and in this time of doing nothing else but this.

And so hold it with kindness,

Hold it with space,

Honor yourself for who you are and who you've become and how you've changed in your life.

See if you're grasping in your face at all and start to relax back into that space.

You might have been doing a lot of thinking and so sometimes your eyebrows face gets a little frowned.

See if you can soften.

Wherever you are with your breath,

Please exhale here,

Release even out of your mouth if that feels supportive for you.

Let's find an inhalation through your nose.

Feel it come in at the tip of your nose.

Exhale.

And a few more audible breaths,

Please inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Take two more rounds.

Keep with the audibility,

Keep with the feeling.

The audibility is there for your nervous system to know that it's okay to soften and relax here and that you are safe and hopefully you do feel safe in the space that you are in.

Please remember your exhale always in your life.

This is the most important.

This is where all the softening lies.

You can start to bring back movement to your body however you need to and we'll just close this meditation practice.

If you're in a seat,

You can bring your hands to Anjali Mudra.

If you're laying down,

You can stay laying down.

It's all good.

We're just going to honor ourselves a moment of gratitude and thanks for showing up,

Being interested to do better and learn and take care of ourselves in this way.

We honor and thanks for the lineage of yoga and all of the truth that it carries and that it is a deeply rooted ancient practice with many layers and knowing that this is just a small piece of a very,

Very big journey,

A very big knowing.

You're welcome to bow to seal practice.

Thank you for being here and thank you for your support.

Reviews

Thank you for this lovely loving practice connecting with ahimsa 🥰🙏