Yama

The first limb of yoga. There are eight limbs all together. Yama is the Sanskrit for self restraint and  it goes into five ways to practice it.

1. Do no harm(ahimsa): this refers to practicing nonviolence toward all living things. Many times in life there are things or people that test your patience and try to take you to that level of violence, but it’s up to you to find that restraint to choose to “kill with kindness”

2. Practice Honesty(satya):  Being truthful in one's thought, speech and actions. The truth can be very hard to communicate sometimes, because of the fear of hurting others and how it will come back on you. Being honest can make you lose friends and even family, but if they can’t accept the truth, then maybe that relationship wasn’t meant to be. 

3. Do not steal(asteya): One must not steal, nor have the intent to steal someone else’s property via action, speech and/or thoughts.

4. Do not waste energy(brahmacharya): Referring to your sexual energy. Don’t waste your sexual energy on just anyone. Everyone that you may want to deal with sexually may not have your best interest. Soul ties is a very real thing this can also refer to wasting your energy on the wrong people and the wrong things. You have the power to remove your energy from things that have no benefit for you.

5. Practice non-greed(aparigraha): Keeping the desire for possessions to only to what’s necessary or important, depending of life that you’re currently at. With the way society is now there advertisements and things out there that promote having the “newest thing out” when in reality we really don’t need it. So many peoples get hurt during events like those Black Friday sales just to get the newest product for a low price. 

As you see, being a “yogi” is much more than the physical part. It has a lot more mental practice included. 

Discussion time in the comments:

Which of these five practices have you needed to work on?  I’ll include my own ✨