the Yoga of Kindness

Kindness is a component of any spiritual practice and is part of living your Yoga practice as well. Of course, in our Yoga practice, we learn to ignore the voices in our head, the ones usually put there by others, that say we're not being kind enough or that we're bound by a rule that defines kindness in a way that "counts", and which denies the presence of the self,

While we are making good karma when we are acting kind, we aren't looking to "score points".

Kindness loosely means giving to someone in need. Need is a loosely-defined word. Think of a time when you were extremely angry at the world and and some random person was nice to you, exactly when you needed it to happen.

Kindness comes in all sizes...

Such acts are powerful due to sincerity, not size. Maybe you were carrying a bunch of stuff through a doorway and you about to drop all of it on the floor, and someone held the door for you so you could get through, preventing an aggravating you certainly wanted to avoid. Maybe someone gave you a ride when you were stranded,

Whatever the act of kindness you witnessed or received, it made you feel alive again and reminded you that you weren't alone...

A gift of a flower, a hug or even just a good compliment can change a whole day and change the whole course of life for a person. To know that you have such power to change is in itself a great gift to you, and makes it easy to give without need of a gift in return.

Shanti Om!