Compassion, Starting with Yourself

by Juan Villegas, E-RYT® 500

How to Be a More Compassionate Human

There is great importance in creating compassion for yourself so you can spread that care to others. I find it interesting on flights when during the emergency protocol announcement the flight attendants stress that you need to put your own mask on first before helping anyone with theirs.

This used to be difficult for me to understand. I thought that if I were a parent I would put the mask on my child first. Now I understand the reason, how can you help others put on a mask if you are struggling for oxygen yourself? If you are a compassionate person who wants to help others, as we are as yoga teachers, it’s possible to do too much for others before we consider applying that compassion to ourselves.

Saucha as a Way to Find a Deep Truth Within Yourself

by Juan Villegas, E-RYT® 500

Saucha or Purity: The First Niyama

Saucha means purity, clearness of mind, speech and body. Saucha is one of the Niyamas of yoga and Niyamas can be interpreted to mean positive duties and observances. In the book “The Yamas and Niyamas: Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice” by Deborah Adele, she goes further with the concept of saucha by saying that we not only need to be pure in thoughts and words but also develop purity in relation to the things that we have no control of. She writes that:

‘Saucha asks us not only to seek purity in ourselves, but to seek purity with each moment by allowing it to be as it is. We are asked to be with life, with others, with things, with the day, with work, with the weather, as they are in the moment, not as we wish they were or think they should be or expect them to be.’