It’s been a while since my last blog…...
Life has a way of happening, doesn’t it - Lyme Disease, work, gardening,….(which, by the way, after much money spent on plants, seeds, fertilizer, etc. and time, has been decimated by rabbits, chipmunks and whatever eats tomatoes, swiss chard, green beans, beets and zucchini!!) Oh well, we all need to eat, right?
So moving along, let’s discuss the third Yama—Asteya – or non-stealing! (Did you hear that my rabbit and chipmunk friends??? - non-stealing!!) Humm,… I doubt they care.
So, you say,” I don’t steal, I would never steal.” Hummm…….no? A sticky note pad here, a pencil or a pen there, tasting the grapes at the grocery store or candy from the bulk bin….???, but stealing? Technically, yes! I am sure we are all guilty of having taken some little token at some point in this long and beautiful life of ours, and, most of the time, not even giving a thought to the realization that this IS stealing.
But how, you wonder, can we relate stealing or non-stealing to our yoga practice?
You would probably be surprised to learn that you probably steal from yourself during each yoga practice.
How many times during a practice have you thought: “is it almost time for savasana?” “How much longer are we going to hold this prose?” “I can’t wait to get home and eat, I’m starving.” “I really should be home doing my homework/housework.” “I could be home resting.”
All normal thoughts that all of us have had during one class or other. In fact, if you told me you NEVER uttered any of the above statements, I would have a hard time believing you. We’re human. We have active minds that think and wonder and wander, get bored, tired, anxious, frustrated…..
“But, how is this stealing from our practice,” you ask? Rather than taking the time to experience the pose, or exploring how one might go deeper into the pose, often we take the easier way out, and in doing so, “robbing” ourselves of the glorious experience of discovery. "I'm afraid to go deeper, I might pull something." "I know this is my max." (Is it?) Familiar is so much safer then exploration.
Do we watch other students in the class or the teacher, criticizing ourselves because we can’t quite get into the pose like they do, instead of staying focused on our own mats, and our own bodies? How many times in class or in our daily lives, are we discontent with who and where we are rather than living in and accepting each and every precious moment for what it is.
Instead, practice each pose as if it were the first time you were experiencing that pose with wonder, deep awareness and an open mind, oblivious of anyone else in the room.
Outside of your practice be aware of each moment of each and every day and experience those moments with pure joy and discovery.
We spend so much time wishing or wanting—that we “rob” ourselves of the now. “Now” is it! “Now” is reading this blog. This is all we’ve got! Enjoy it! “Be” in it. Don’t waste time (rob yourself) on what is yet to be or, for that matter, what may never be!!
Mary Oliver wrote a poem entitled: When Death Comes. It is a beautiful poem speaking about living and experiencing life fully. For me, it is a poem about Asteya, or non-stealing from oneself. Below are the final verses in the poem, which for me, say it all:
....When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made all my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
Peace..
