Perhaps most importantly, ahimsa includes all sorts of pain-causing activities. Including hurting people by the tongue. A cut to the skin may heal in weeks but the mental trauma of being abused may last a lifetime.
Ahimsa is not just physical non-violence. As one of the best spiritual tools, not causing any discomfort to any other being, either through thought, word or deed, is truly the mark of divinity.
And ahimsa cannot come from a place of weakness. It requires tremendous strength and courage to control one’s emotions, especially if one is at the receiving end of himsa (verbal or otherwise)!
Verbal control is quite easy too, once we’ve understood how lack of it makes us look. As they say, swearing is simply a sign of poverty of vocabulary!