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‘The sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe me.’ Look what happens with a love like that. It lights up the whole sky.’ ~ Hafiz

We’ve all experienced that warm inner glow when we do someone a favour. How many times have you offered a friend a shoulder to cry on, done some shopping for an elderly neighbour or let someone hop in front of you in the supermarket queue because they’re just buying nappies while you have a whole trolley-load to feed the small army back at home? Such everyday small acts of kindness make us feel unselfish, or perhaps we feel instinctively that ‘one good turn deserves another’ and that we’ll reap the benefit one day.

We know that doing something for others can make us feel good about ourselves. Psychological studies even suggest that there are measurable health benefits to this sort of behaviour: it lowers stress and gives us a ‘rush’, a bit like an endorphin release during exercise.

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Seva and service to others:

In the yoga tradition we might use the Sanskrit word ‘seva’ to describe this kind of behaviour. But the Sanskrit word has deeper associations and it’s usually translated as ‘selfless service’. Seva comes straight from the heart, allowing us to act out of compassion and love for our fellow creatures or fellow human beings: we don’t expect anything in return and we don’t count what it might cost us. So true seva is much more difficult than simply doing someone a favour. It’s about truly letting go of the idea that we expect to get anything in return, ever – even that nice glow of satisfaction! Acting purely from the desire to help others and promote their happiness.

This might seem like a difficult thing to do – remote, other-worldly, too spiritual perhaps. But like everything in yoga, it’s a practice. And there are always many small things each day we could offer as ‘seva’. We can just do our best and let the outcomes take care of themselves.

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Try this on the mat:

  • Make room for your fellow yogis in a crowded studio even if it means you have to move away from your coveted favourite spot
  • After class tidy up around you when you leave, replacing any blocks or props that other students might have left out so that the room is ready for the next students to enjoy
  • Try chanting loka? samasta? sukhino bhavantu (“may all beings be happy and free”) Follow this video and meditate on how to align your actions with this mantra, how what you do might be of service to others

Try this off the mat:

  • Smile at a stranger
  • Stop in the street to help someone who’s holding a map and looking lost
  • Offer to a charity — some time or a small donation — and don’t tell anyone about it
  • Improve the environment for everyone in your local area by doing a litter pick, or perhaps commit regularly to picking up any rubbish you see in your street or around your workplace
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