Season 3 : Episode 3 : Are you being good to you ?

In this episode of Black Prana Yoga Podcast , we dive deep into the profound concept of ahimsa, or non-violence, in the practice of yoga and its application in everyday life. Ahimsa is the foundational principle of yoga philosophy, advocating for compassion, kindness, and harmlessness towards oneself and others.
Join Ashley as they explore the multifaceted aspects of ahimsa, discussing its significance in fostering inner peace, cultivating empathy, and promoting social justice. Through insightful interviews with yoga teachers, practitioners, and activists, we uncover practical strategies for embodying ahimsa on and off the mat.
From self-compassion practices to mindful communication techniques, this episode offers actionable insights for integrating ahimsa into our relationships, communities, and global initiatives. Discover how embracing ahimsa can create ripple effects of healing, transformation, and collective liberation in our interconnected world.
Tune in to this inspiring conversation and embark on a journey towards greater compassion, understanding, and non-violence in your life and the world around you.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hello, and welcome to the BlackPranne Yoga Podcast. I am your host,
Ashley, founder and CEO of BlackParanney Yoga Magazine and Black Paranney Yoga
and Pull. And on today's show, we are talking about the yoga sutras.
We are starting with the Yamas andstarting off with ahimsa, which is

(00:22):
nonviolence. And when we talk aboutthese things, usually we speak of nonviolence
in terms of community and outward facingand how we can how we treat and
interact with our neighbors, how theytreat and interact with us. We usually
talk about it from that perspective,but today today I want to dive into

(00:45):
it from a different perspective, whichis how is it that you are able
to be nonviolent to yourself? Thereason that I like to tackle and or
take a look at a hymsa fromthis perspective is I am a strong believer
and the fact that you will struggleto give something to someone else that you

(01:06):
cannot give to yourself If you don'tknow it for yourself, how can you
share that with someone else? Ifyou aren't aware of what your personal boundaries
are, how can you ask someoneto respect them? And in the perspective
of nonviolence is what does that meanto you? So usually when we talk
about nonviolence, it is how arewe treating our neighbors? What do we

(01:30):
do when someone attacks us? Howdo we respond? How do we manage
verbal or physical aggression, how dowe manage microaggressions? What do we do
in those moments? And who arewe? How is we also look at
this from a perspective of how violenceis understood culturally, because culturally makes a

(01:53):
huge difference in how you choose torespond to things. What makes sense to
you from a cultural perspective not makesense to someone else that is of another
culture. And are there truly violentacts that we may consider socially acceptable so
to speak, or that we arecomplicit in the acceptance of those behaviors just

(02:17):
because that's how it always was orhow it's always been, or something to
that effect. So that's usually theperspective to which we look at nonviolence.
But as I said before, I'dlike to take a look at it from
how do you show up and insociety in a space in place that is

(02:39):
non violent to yourself? So whatdoes yourself talk sound like? Is it
really judgmental? It is? Isit overly critical? Are you constantly putting
yourself down? Is your go toresponse or reaction when something bad happens that

(02:59):
you or you know bad as objective? But when something unwanted, let's say,
happens to you, where you endup taking all of the blame or
immediately jumped to the fact that,oh, this is my fault and I
should have done this, I couldhave done that better, and maybe come
at it from a self loathing perspectiveand not necessarily allow yourself the grace that

(03:23):
you may extend to another person.In this nonviolent place, where are you
giving yourself the opportunity for growth?Or say, now, you know what,
it's not that this is a moralfailing of mine. It's not that
I did this purposely. It's justI didn't know what I didn't know and

(03:45):
things didn't work out. Or Ihad a completely different plan, had completely
different expectations and none of those thingscame to fruition. Now I am in
this spot as opposed to feeling asthough it's a moral failing of you personally
that something didn't shake out the rightway. This also comes from a place
of what voice do you hear inyour head that may be judgmental when things

(04:13):
happen that can perceived as violent toself. So here's an example of that
where you may excuse me, whereyour inner critic may be like super super
loud when something does transpire that youdon't necessarily like. So an example is
in a simple example could be Ileft my shoes out in the living room,

(04:35):
right and your shoes are out inthe living room and someone comes in
and says, why did you leavethose shoes there? I can't believe you
do that. You're so inconsiderate,and on and on and on and on
and on, and then fast forwardto your adult life and you leave your
shoes in the living room and tripover them, and your inner dialogue turns
into I'm so inconsiderate, I can'tbelieve I left my shoes out here,

(04:57):
and on and on and on andon and on, making it a moral
feeling being unkind to you, whenin reality it was, ugh, I
just forgot to put my shoes away. So, in the space of being
nonviolent to self, how can wereframe that self talk? How can we
speak to ourselves in a kinder manner? Then once we can tackle that,
once we can work through speaking toourselves in a kinder manner. Now we

(05:21):
have the opportunity to project what ourinternal dialogue is to the outside world,
because when something goes wrong it's uncomfortable, or we have to have an uncomfortable
conversation. We do not lead withthe voice of the inner critic, or
we do not lead with the voiceof someone else that said something as to
you to us when we were akid, that we never let go of,

(05:43):
right, because a lot of timesthat inner critic voice, that let's
say, the violent voice, thevoice of unkindness, isn't even ours.
It's just things that we have notunpacked. But we play in a loop
on repeat constantly. So in aneffort to reframe that voice, when those
moments do come up, I encourageyou to be curious. Be curious about,

(06:09):
Oh well, why was that myresponse? As opposed to judging the
response and further spiraling down the rabbithole, why was that my response?
Is that really me? Do Iactually feel that way? Is this really
a moral failing? Or did thingsjust not go the way that I thought
they would go? Or is therea place for me to grow? And

(06:30):
should I have planned better? ShouldI have should I have asked for help.
What are the things that I couldhave done in this moment in order
to improve this particular outcome that donot involve personally attacking your humanity And give
yourself an opportunity to be graceful,be understanding with self, give yourself the

(06:57):
opportunity to connect from a place ofoh, hey, you know, there's
room for me to grow here.This is something that I'm actively working on.
This is something that I'm actively goingto change moving forward, or this
is something that I may need toask for help for. This is something
that could possibly be beyond my abilityright now or my scope of understanding and

(07:17):
or practice in order for me toimprove. So when we speak of ahimsa
in nonviolence, yes we do talkabout it from a community perspective, but
I encourage you to really investigate itfrom a perspective of how can I do
this for myself? And then onceI have an understanding of self and can

(07:41):
connect with who I am, howcan I then share this with my community
in a meaningful and impactful way tobe great or to create a greater space
for everyone. All Right, So, Ahimsa is our yoga word of the

(08:01):
day. It's nonviolence one of thetenets of the Eight Limbed Path of Yoga.
It's a part of the Yamas.I encourage you to continue to listen
to the podcast as I share moreabout the Eight Limbed Path, and I
hope that this was helpful for someonetoday. Remember that you can always join

(08:24):
us for our beginners two hundred houryoga teacher training for just forty seven dollars
down and forty seven dollars a month. It is completely virtual and you can
do it on your schedule and yourtime. So I look forward to seeing
you all on the mat and makesure that you follow us if you are
on Spotify or anywhere else that youcan get your podcasts so you don't miss

(08:46):
the next show. Have a goodone.