Compassion and boundaries: how can yoga help with that?

Yoga means union. And to me, my yoga practice has been about integrating philosophy and behaviour. One of my favourite writers since I have discovered her in 2011 has been Brene Brown. I have read three of her books (Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly and Rising Strong). And I love what she says about how compassion and boundaries go hand in hand. People who are very compassionate, according to Brene Brown, are people who are very clear on their own personal boundaries - which therefore equip them to mirror that in the way they act towards others.

How we work, how we relate to our work, our discipline or lack of it. Our commitment or over commitment to our practises in general. These all says a lot about how we are establishing and committing to our boundaries. When I am on my matt practising my asanas and I set my intentions, what I am ultimately doing I feel is experimenting with those boundaries. I have started practising yoga in 2015 looking to improve my flexibility. But what I realised, was that what I probably needed to improve was my relationship with resistance. On a physical and practical level, when we are working on a posture that requires lengthening of our muscles, it is not flexibility that makes that posture safe and well-executed. It often is the balance between the right amount of lengthening and resistance (which I will translate into muscle engagement) which will then protect the joints, give the posture a base and allow the actual lengthening - or flexibility per se - to happen. In other words, when we understand the limits of our body and we are comfortable with them, we then know how to expand and extend that limit in a safe way. When we don't, we either hold on too tight or we don't let it go enough - which in both cases can lead to injury or /and not the best performance in the physical achievement that one is trying to reach. When we practise our postures with compassion towards ourselves - on a physical and emotional levels - and we can listen to our limitations with no judgement but discernment, this is when we can then create space for that posture to evolve. And in other situations in life, for that matter, it is also when we understand our own boundaries and we look at them with kindness so we don't over stretch, this is when we are able to offer the same quality of behaviours to those around us. And like the yoga practice that gives back to us exactly the same amount of effort or love that we put in it. Others can also respond similarly and proportionally to the same amount of loving kindness and compassion that we give them. When we believe that we are doing the best we can - whatever our personal best means at a given time - we make room to believing also that everyone else is doing the same. If you wish to explore this topic a bit more, I recommend watching the video "Are people doing the best they can" by Russell Brand and Brene Brown.