Finding Balance Through Ahimsa Making Facemasks: A Lesson on Ahimsa By Christine Boyd Miller
Ahimsa is an ancient yogic principle rooted in nonviolence. It means causing no harm toward any living thing; the earth itself. I’ve been trying
to
live
my
life
according
to
this
principle
and
it
has
had
a
profound effect on my general outlook and how I react to conflict. My greatest conflicts lie within though, and practicing ahimsa inwardly is more challenging for me than practicing it toward others. As I grow daily through my ahimsa practice toward the earth and other living beings, I am becoming kinder to myself.
I
have
struggled
on
and
off
with
depression
for
several
years
and
recently have been trudging through the deepest depression of my life since my sister died seven months ago. In the dense fog of tragedy and pain, practicing ahimsa has been a saving grace. It has also become crystal clear to me that if I don’t take care of myself with love and kindness, I don’t have the energy to express ahimsa outwardly.
I’ve always thrown myself into taking care of others as a way to avoid dealing with my problems. After a while, my reserves become depleted and I have a convenient excuse for not taking care of myself. Like the proverbial oxygen mask - if I’m not healthy, I can’t practice ahimsa toward the earth and all its beings.
When the shelter-in-place (SIP) orders began, I used the opportunity to throw myself into my yoga practice. My local yoga studio took all of its classes online so I could, and still can, practice yoga in real-time with my
teacher
and
fellow
yogis
every
day.
In
the
beginning,
I
even
attended two classes a day sometimes. My goal was to bring yoga into my quarantine routine. After a few weeks, a combination of factors interrupted virtual
my
classes.
new I
was
routine, hard
I
on
pretty
much
stopped
myself
about
it
at
attending
first,
but
my
once
I
remembered to look at the disruption through an ahimsa lens, I started to feel better about it. I’m struggling to get back to a regular yoga practice, perhaps a less ambitious one. I’ve realized that practicing ahimsa every day keeps my yoga practice alive even if I’m not attending class.
Shortly after the SIP, a friend of mine started a mask drive for our county’s homeless population. I have a sewing machine that, until a couple of months ago, I could barely figure out how to thread. Next to my barely used sewing machine was a bin full of fabrics that I had intended for years to turn into beautiful clothes. I’ve always wanted to learn how to sew but have never been able to move it up the chain of ever-piling priorities. The mask drive was the ideal opportunity to both practice ahimsa toward my community and learn how to sew.
37
