How To Practice Ahimsa in Yoga and Daily Life
What does it mean to practice Ahimsa—non-harming—in yoga and in daily life?
Ahimsa isn’t just about avoiding harm. It’s about cultivating kindness, patience, and care—in our words, our thoughts, our actions, and how we show up in the world.
Join us for a discussion on yoga philosophy and ethics where we talk about Ahimsa – non-violence or non-harming – in yoga and daily life.
Watch the video or scroll down for transcript notes and ideas to add to your yoga journaling practice.
How To Practice Ahimsa in Yoga and Daily Life
Hi folks, it’s Heather Agnew here – senior yoga teacher and educator – and in this video, we’re diving into the heart of yoga philosophy: Ahimsa, or non-harming.
Ahimsa is more than just avoiding violence. It’s a practice of mindful compassion – paying attention to how we move through the world, how we speak, think, and act – and the impact we have on others, our communities, and the planet.
Before we dig into this Ahimsa, let’s begin with a short introduction to our yoga philosophies and ethics teachings, the Yamas and Niyamas.
What are the Yamas and Niyamas?
In the 8 limbs of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the first two limbs, the Yamas and Niyamas, focus on ethical teachings that help to guide our choices and behavior both with others, and in our relationship to ourselves.
The Yamas and Niyamas ask us to look inwards and introspect, consider our actions and impact, and make mindful choices.
The first limb of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the Yamas, the Yamas, focuses on our social conduct – how we impact others through our thoughts, words, and actions. And, zooming out a bit, perhaps how we can make the world a better place by how we endorse or oppose larger actions within our communities or globally.
While yoga tends to focus on our inner journey, the Yamas remind us that no matter how far we travel in that inner journey, we must also remain grounded in awareness of our impact on others.
These Yamas encourage prosocial behavior. They help us to move beyond our baser impulses, or what I think of as our ‘toddler impulses’ to lash out when angry, take when we want, lie when it’s convenient, and overconsume or hoard resources.
Over the coming weeks we’ll talk about each of these ethics in turn, but for today, we’ll focus on the first of these Yamas, Ahimsa, which means non-harming or nonviolence, and how we might practice this in daily life – in our relationships, social conduct, and community care.
The Yoga Sutras say:
“When we are firmly established in nonviolence, all hostility ceases in our presence.”
– or –
“In the presence of one established in nonviolence, all hostility ceases”
I love this idea of being so grounded in peace and compassion that even conflict softens around you.
The foundation of this peace and compassion is mindful attention. Ahimsa asks us to pay attention to the impact we have through our actions, our words, our thoughts, and how we connect with our community.
Ahimsa is not only about avoiding doing harm, but about cultivating kindness, patience, and care.
So, what does that mean in our everyday life?
- Not doing harm to others – words, thoughts, actions
- Speaking kindly to others
- Treating others with respect and empathy
- Living lightly on the earth
There are so many practical ways that we can explore Ahimsa in everyday life, and I thought it might be useful to make some categories (because I love organizing categories) to focus clearly on a few areas.
Perhaps you’d like to take out a notebook or create a file where you can think of two or three things you might do for each of these categories that suit you and your lifestyle. You might not focus on them all at once, but creating a plan for how you might take Ahimsa out into your life in these six areas:
1. Personal relationships
2. Yoga Practice/Teaching
3. Workplace
4. Lifestyle
5. Community
6. Earth/Environment
I want to point out that there are so many things you are already doing to think about your impact on others and reduce harm and live with kindness. Perhaps you can think of a few things in the lists below that you are already doing, plus a few new things you can bring into your practice.
1. Personal relationships
When it comes to your personal relationships, how might you practice Ahimsa
- Not doing harm to others – words, thoughts, actions
- Speaking kindly to and about others – and that includes yourself because you are a person too
- Addressing personal conflicts with compassion
- Being a safe space for people
- Giving people grace when they make mistakes – not always assuming bad intentions (yes, this is about traffic)
- Being accepting of others who may not share your lifestyle, values, beliefs, or culture
- Paying attention when people are talking or wanting to connect (get off your phone!)
This last one I really want to highlight, because, like we learned in the movie Breakfast Club, being ignored hurts. It is a kind of harm to ignore others when they want our attention – that might be in conversation when you are looking at your phone instead of paying attention, or when people reach out for connection maybe with a text, sending you a meme or an article, or reach out for contact in any way. Think about how it feels to reach out to connect and get nothing back – it hurts – so one way to practice Ahimsa is to reciprocate in some way to those appeals for connection.
If you have other ideas of how you might practice Ahimsa in your personal relationships, jot these down in your journal, or let us know in the comments below we’d love to hear it.
2. Yoga Practice and Teaching
How might we practice Ahimsa
As a student:
- Clean props after use
- Ensure our movements won’t harm others or infringe on their practice
- Be welcoming to all and not exclude others
- Respect everyone’s space
- Don’t go to class sick
As a yoga teacher:
- Ensuring your classes are accessible and inclusive
- Making all students feel welcomed and a feel a sense of belonging
- Be aware of harming language (relative to culture, race, age, ability, size, etc.)
- Creating a safe space for practice – cleanliness, policies that reduce sick people coming to class, etc.
If you have other ideas of how you are or can practice Ahimsa in your yoga practice or teaching, jot them down in your journal and maybe let us know in the comments below.
3. Workplace
I haven’t work in many conventional workplaces, so I have fewer ideas in this category and I could use your help. I’ve thought of a few that seem essential:
- Not getting involved in petty gossip – especially if it could harm someone’s reputation
- Being welcoming and friendly
- Addressing issues in the workplace that could cause harm to workers, customers, or the wider community
- Being a champion of the office initiatives for environmental practices (recycling or composting, reducing energy consumption, turning off lights at night for the birds), or cultural days, or workplace wellness, or sponsoring community initiatives.
Help to reduce harm within the workplace, and harms caused by our workplace.
As I said, I don’t work in conventional workplaces, so you all probably have some great ideas that I have never thought of, let us know!
4. Lifestyle
Everyone has different lifestyle practices and needs, so there is a wide variety in how you might choose to practice Ahimsa, but here are a few ideas:
- Reducing consumption – especially of things that harm you or others – workers, delivery people etc.
- Composting and recycling
- Growing your own food if you are able – side benefit it’s the most satisfying and joyful practice!
- Choosing plant-based meals
- Eating locally
- Reducing plastics use
- Not using or reducing use of AI
- Choosing products and services where people are paid a fair wage
- Not texting and driving (or any distracted or impaired driving)
Perhaps you want to note down some practices that you can implement in your own lifestyle, remembering that everyone has different lifestyle needs, so we are all doing our part to reduce harm in our own ways.
5. Community
- Being actively inclusive of marginalized groups
- Not littering (and better yet participating in clean-up days)
- Wearing a mask or staying home when you are sick
- Boycotting companies that are harming your community
- Supporting local small businesses and local farmers
- Sponsoring or supporting community initiatives like food banks, clothing or book swaps to keep things out of landfills, animal shelters, blood drives, or harm reduction programs.
- Voting (locally, state/provincial, federal) and perhaps even getting involved in local politics. Voting is a way that we think beyond our own needs and desires, extend kindness and care to our whole community, and reduce harms caused to people, cultures, animals, and the planet. Beyond voting, communicating with your elected officials about what is important to you and your community. I’ll talk about that more in a sec, but first
6. Earth/Environment
- Coexisting with nature (remembering you are part of nature)
- Choosing more plant-based meals if that works for your body/lifestyle
- Cycling or walking when you can
- Reducing the use of products or technology that cause harm to others or to the earth
- Being pollinator-friendly – in my own garden I’m trying to increase native plants and pollinator plants, and reduce invasive and non-native plants, and reduce how much of my yard is boring old lawn.
- Being conscious of your use of resources and speaking up about how we collectively use resources.
That last point reminds us that reducing harm might include taking personal action or collective action. This is where voting, boycotting, speaking up and spreading the word, and calling for change can make a huge difference in reducing harm for everyone, and making the world a kinder, more peaceful, and more equitable place.
One thing you can do on is call your local, state/provincial, or federal reps to express your views on things like addressing big polluters, protecting vulnerable people or species or spaces, making things like housing and renewable energy more affordable and available to all.
You might talk about ensuring everyone has a safe home, food to eat, clothes to wear, and freedom to live their lives without harassment.
If you don’t like phone calls, put their email addresses into your contacts list and write them. It doesn’t have to be the perfect email, just let them know you are thinking about an issue and want to know how they are addressing it. These messages matter, and they do contribute to reducing harm and making the world a better place.
Reminder: Yamas are not laws
Yamas are not laws. You don’t get arrested by the yoga police if you aren’t doing all the things all the time. Also, there are lots of grey areas where you might have to put thought into what is the most ethical choice.
Where do we draw a line?
- If someone’s safety is at risk
- It’s not gossip if you are keeping people safe
- It’s not ahimsa if you are harming yourself by making lifestyle choices that aren’t good for your health or safety
How to practice Ahimsa in daily life
One of the things I love about the Yamas and Niyamas is that they are a lifelong study. They are layered and that with every experience we have an opportunity to pause and think and make a mindful choice. Your mindful choices might be different from someone else’s. We are all here having our own journey and trying our best to practice Ahimsa with the resources and awareness we have today.
For today, I hope that this has given you some ideas about how you might practice non-harming and nonviolence in your own life. If you’ve noted down some ways that you’d like to bring Ahimsa into your everyday life, you might like to take some time to plan for how you’ll practice these in a way that works for you. Perhaps one new action a week or focus on one of the categories we’ve discussed each week. You might make yourself some sticky notes, or calendar reminders, or add these to your yoga journal to remind you of these intentional practices.
I wish you well in your practice of Ahimsa and look forward to seeing you for the next discussion on Satya, truthfulness.
For now, thank you for being here and being part of this great yoga adventure!
Want to learn more about yoga philosophy? Explore our Yoga Philosophy Lifeskills or Yoga Philosophy Professional Development online courses
Want to explore more discussions on Yoga Philosophy and Ethics? Check out our YouTube channel for free podcast discussions and more