How many of us really practice non violence Ahimsa in yoga. As I am working on creating a foundation yoga course it made me think. When we are unwilling to look deeply at ourselves and courageously at our own lives (judge and shame others), we can easily violate others in the most subtle ways that we may not even be aware of, thinking we are helping them but actually not. Social media is a fire of loud judgment, shame and preaching. So many people are scared of what they see and get triggered but don’t look courageously at themselves instead hurt another or point the finger. But non violence asks can you look without your voice commenting, drawing conclusions, comparing or trying to figure out something about others? Non violence asks us to question the feeling of powerlessness rather than accept it. When we feel powerless we have forgotten how much choice we really have. We have a choice to take action or change instead of sulking, projecting or telling ourselves we have no power. It asks us when we are triggered to say what do I need to do right now to feel competent and handle this situation? The violence we do to this world and others thinking we know best is well illustrated in a story from India. There was a monkey in a tree with a fish. The monkey thought it saved the fish from drowning had taken the fish into an environment that did not meet its needs for survival and growth. We cannot save or fix people. When we try to fix others we take them from a rich learning experience and in turn also can be cutting them off from growing stronger. We need to learn to trust in suffering and trust challenges and mistakes that are here to refine us. You see every pair of eyes watching another or us has probably endured something we could not handle, every human has walked a painful journey tucked deep within. If we could remember this truth maybe we could see with the eyes of compassion rather than the eyes of judgment, wrong/right, beliefs and preferences.