“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” Dalai Lama
I’ve practiced yoga for over 15 years. I’ve taught more than 12,000 hours and since my very first teacher training, my goal has always been to teach what I practice and to practice what I teach. Through the years of practicing with different teachers, it has become clear to me that creating a compassionate yoga community requires that we take responsibility.
After all, our actions, thoughts, and words impact the connections we have with those around us: just as positive energy creates more positive energy, the inverse is also true. Our worldwide Yoga Tribe is strong in love but we diminish our power by publicly degrading other styles of yoga that are not our favorite. Picking on yoga styles or schools we don’t like doesn’t help anyone. It doesn’t end there. Bad mouthing local teachers, facebook smack talking, instayogi shaming or any time spent degrading those with a different yogic opinion promotes separation.
Instead, I challenge us to soften to the diversity amongst yogis and the varied ways we practice. If, in a well-sequenced class, we can thrive in movement through forward folds, backbends, twists and balances, why can’t we find compassion to get along with different groups of yogis as well? Compassionate community brings power through connection. And if we lose our compassion, we lose what it means to be human. Remember, Yoga is always about union and bringing us together.
“It doesn’t matter how many hours you practice yoga or meditate by yourself, the union of being in relationship with others is what heals the world. Yoga teaches us that isolation is the root cause of suffering and connection is the essence of healing.” Silvia Mordini
In the Yoga Sutras, Pantanjali gives us a four-part process to help us clear our hearts of any negative energy. It becomes a means for quieting our minds and reconnecting to the deepest reservoirs of unconditional love and compassion. The sutras advise that we:
- cultivate maitri (friendliness) toward pleasure and friends;
- karma (compassion) for those who are in pain or suffering (yourself included);
- mudita (joy) toward those for whom you are happy and whom you admire;
- and upeksanam (equanimity) toward those who have hurt us, or we disagree with.
Starting now, apply these Keys to Happiness and see for yourself how this changes your life! Within the next 24 hours, choose one tangible action you can take to endorse compassion and decrease turbulance in your yoga community. From that spark of momentum let this set the intention for you to keep taking positive action after action to encourage peaceful union in Yoga!
Love yourself, love your day, love your life!
Silvia
10 Favorite Quotes on Compassion
1. “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. “ — Dalai Lama
2. “Make no judgements where you have no compassion.”– Anne McCafrey
3. “As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.” – Ursula LeGuin
4. “At the end of the day, love and compassion will win.” – Terry Waite
5. “Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.” – Albert Schweitzer
6. “Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.” – Confucius
7. “Yoga is about compassion and generosity towards others. It means being mindful of the world around us.” – Christy Turlington
8. “You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion.” – Meister Eckhart
9. “Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy.” – Chogyam Trungpa
10. “Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves.” – Mason Cooley
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Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Silvia Mordini, CEO, Transformation Leader, and Author. With contagious enthusiasm Silvia encourages everyone she meets to love their life! Her expert passion connects people to their own joyful potential. She has been teaching happiness, global awareness, & mindfulness for 20 years. Silvia, born in Ecuador, proud of her Italian heritage and raised as a world traveler, is a well-loved internationally recognized Motivational Speaker, Love Alchemist, and Mindfulness Teacher at conferences worldwide. Her classes holistically integrate various styles of yoga, primarily Vinyasa, Kundalini, and Anusara. You can’t help but leave her workshops, RYT200 Alchemy of Yoga teacher trainings & Alchemy Tours retreats spiritually uplifted!
Before becoming a serial Entrepreneur, Silvia had a thirteen-year Human Resource career including as Director for an international Fortune 100 professional services company. She founded and owned Total Body Yoga Studio with over 9,000 clients for ten years. In young adulthood she was run over by a car—a life changing accident that led her to discover the “Alchemy” of Yoga and Meditation to heal and transcend. She is the Founder of the fifteen year old world renowned Alchemy of Yoga Teacher Training School with over 29 graduating classes of Alchemist Alumni. In 2009 she founded Alchemy Tours, an International Retreat company specializing in Personal Development. With over 12,000 hours of yoga teaching experience she makes yoga approachable, fun, and inspiring for everyone. She has been inspiring happiness, global awareness, and joyful living in students for more than fifteen years.
Tune into her motivational “Loving Your Day” Podcast. Read her popular blog “Happiness Prescriptions”, and learn to love yourself, love your day, love your life along with enjoying her “Loving Your Day” YouTube channel.
She has written hundreds of lifestyle, travel & wellness articles for publications such as MindBodyGreen (USA), Elephant Journal, DOYOU (Hong Kong), Wanderlust (USA), Mantra Wellness Magazine, Gaia, Yogi Times, Daily Cup of Yoga (USA), and is a wellness expert as seen in HuffPost and Medium.
Most importantly through personal experience she knows it’s possible to transform your trauma to dharma and transmute your drama to dreams.
You can reach her by email at silvia@silviamordini.com
Inspired Yoga, Love, and Travel for a LIFE Inspired
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Daily Cup of Yoga 
Great article Silvia. I totally agree that compassion is the key to all things good in life. Many people only think of Asanas when they hear the term “Yoga”. However, in reality, Yoga is a multi-faceted philosophy that includes many mental and spiritual practices apart from the physical ones.
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Great post thanks for sharing.
ya it’s great that compassion in this community is important
because you are going to teach this asan
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Thank you for sharing this post. I might present a controversial perspective, but the way I see it, there is no such thing as compassion. At least, not in the way we think. Compassion arises from the awareness that what I perceive around me and inside me is my own making, my own creation, and is not separated from me. Which means, I don’t feel compassion towards others, because I recognize myself in others. I projected them, and the projection arose from within me, not from outside. So the way to “practice” it, is simply by observing yourself, call it meditation, and recognize your own thoughts, feelings, ideas, and conditioning, so when you see it outside of you, there is no question that it is you.