Start to Practice The 8 Limbs of Yoga

Beyond Asana

Yoga isn’t just a physical practice. We’ve heard it tons of times. It’s simple to get lost in the breath and in the stretches and twists that the physical practice that yoga brings us. But at some point, you have to think “there’s gotta be more,” and you guessed it; there is. If you really are on a path of self-discovery, then there are 8 limbs of Yoga that you can learn and practice daily. Although it would be nice to be able to nail all 8 this week, that’s not the way to do it. Take your time, learn, feel, and discover each part of each one separately, so you can create a conscious and subconscious habit of bringing them into your daily life.  

The Yoga Sutra

Written two thousand years ago, the Yoga Sutra is a timeless Indian classic text that references Ethics, Morality, Philosophy, and Psychology as the way to reach the highest level of meditation called Samadhi. Patanjali, the attributed author, begins by defining yoga and its eight components called “The 8 Limbs of Yoga.” To follow the Yamas, the ethical disciplines, is to follow the first limb of The 8 Limbs of Yoga.

The 5 Yamas:

The ethical disciplines that are primarily concerned with our interaction with the world around us.

• • Ahimsā (non-violence)

• • Satya (truth)

• • Asteya (non-stealing)

• • Brahmacharya (self-restraint)

• Aparigraha (non-greed, non-hoarding)

Ahimsā

The first thing most people think of when they hear ‘non-violence’ has to do with physical contact, right? Are you thinking that right now? Totally makes sense! The word violence, on a basic level, has always been associated with physical contact. Any time we hear someone being called violent, we think that they physically strike people and have a bad temper.

Practicing ahimsā, the first limb of the Yamas, in everyday life can help you make great strides in your journey of self-discovery.  To me, non-violence embodies compassion and empathy.  You need to be able to be empathic in order to give compassion.  Being able to feel what someone else feels and then being able to show genuine concern for someone else’s pain and suffering may come naturally to some, but not to all.  If you can do this, then you most definitely can turn it around and direct it towards yourself in many cases. Practicing Ahimsa is absolutely about ourselves as well as others.

A Personal Story about Ahimsā

Practicing Ahimsā towards myself is something I have been VERY much practicing the past few months and it all started one day when I noticed something my friend said. She couldn’t figure out how to open a file on her computer and kept clicking the wrong buttons. Where I may have said to myself something like “Come oooon idiot, figure it out already,”  while rolling my eyes, my friend said to herself,  “Come on sweetie, you know what are looking for, come on my love.” I loved that so much that I just stared at her in awe. In fact, I don’t think I ever told her what an impact that had on me. I instantly thought about all those times I’ve called myself stupid, dumb, or a dumb-ass for making a silly mistake and I felt BAD about it. Treat others how you want to be treated? How about treating yourself how you want to be treated too?

Violence has many faces and unfortunately surfaces in ways we may not even realize.

Towards all living beings and organisms such as humans, plants, animals, insects etc…

Those who follow the 8 limb path of Raja Yoga, refrain from eating any being that once had life (aka Vegetarianism). They refrain from killing insects and animals and have compassion for the living breathing life in front of them.  After all, a spider doesn’t enter our home to antagonize us, you know what I mean? A mosquito is just looking for some red liquid to drink, it’s not coming at us for revenge on something we did to it. A bee is looking for some pollen most of the time, and when it sees two giant limbs swinging at it and around it like cannons about to blast, of course, it’s gonna react and defend itself. Do you get my point?

Towards people’s feelings and beliefs

Violence against other people’s feelings and beliefs can be violent or attacking.  Practicing compassion for someone else’s views and emotions aids us in keeping an open heart and mind so that we can listen, learn, and understand in a way we might not have known existed.

Towards ourselves

Violence to ourselves, well, that’s a doozy. We are soooo hard on ourselves sometimes!! We can have tons of compassion for others, but why not as much for ourselves? We criticize, judge, and call ourselves names when we should love, accept, and be compassionate toward ourselves.

Where does violence come from?

Violence comes from fear and anger. So for example, fear of that bee stinging us, makes us violent. Anger towards a person’s views or comments makes us violent. See what I mean?

Where does anger come from?

• • Pride. When something attacks our pride, it makes us angry. That anger, in turn, impairs our perspective and distorts our judgment.

• Spiritual Growth. Spiritual growth guides us into being angry at ourselves, not anyone else. It’s like looking in the mirror and saying “After everything you have learned, how did you let yourself do this, or act this way?” We get angry with ourselves because we should “know better.”

In other words, you can be angry at that person for putting you down. You may want to hurt that person with words so they can feel the pain they put you through, but you can also be angry at yourself for not speaking up at that moment, living your truth, and saying what you felt.

How to Get Involved

I invite you to practice ahimsā for a week. Every day, look in the mirror and be conscious of all the ways that violence may play a role in your own daily life.  Write it down at the end of the day and see how much progress you can make in just one day, with just one conscious declaration.

Breathe in: I AM

Exhale: FULL OF LOVE

Breathe in: I AM

Exhale: FULL OF COMPASSION FOR ALL LIVING BEINGS

Breathe in: I AM

Exhale: EMPATHIC TOWARDS THE WORLD

Share your experience in the comments below! 🙂