Asteya Meditation

Asteya, asteya, asteya. Non-stealing, a practice many of us may find easy in some respect, and challenging in others. Here we speak to presence, ways we can avoid stealing away from ourselves, and staying rooted.

Transcript

If you'd like the bolster under your knees,

You're welcome to take that.

Find something that feels supportive.

And if you have an eye pillow,

You're welcome to use that as well.

If you're coming to lie on your back,

You're welcome to lay your arms down long beside you.

Legs come long as well.

Palms have the option of facing up or down.

However,

It works best for your body and your anatomy.

And then as you find yourself here in this space,

In this shape,

Let's take a nice,

Relieving exhalation.

Use it to your ability to soften through your legs and hips,

Your chest,

Your face,

Your teeth.

Let's even take another one here.

Let's find an exhale,

Soft,

Gentle,

Just enough.

Inhale here through your nose.

Exhale.

Start to bring some weight into your feet and ankles.

Let's release the grasping that your glutes just felt.

Let's release the grasping that your glutes just naturally do.

Soften your throat space and the sides of your neck.

See what it's like to just allow your head to be supported and held.

Allow your cheeks to soften so much that they almost kind of drape down towards your ears.

We're going to speak today towards Asteya.

This is the third Yama.

And Asteya means non-stealing.

So we always can take that as a word.

And then we can take another word.

Asteya means non-stealing.

So we always can take that a lot of ways.

And typically kind of the first way we take it is to material objects,

Items,

Physically stealing something.

And while we definitely should not be doing that either,

Let's take it in a way that kind of carries a little deeper into our ethics,

Our practices,

Who we are,

How we approach our relationships,

How we approach others.

Let's talk about it in an energetic sense.

Some of the ways that I find that Asteya comes up is in removing ourselves from presence.

And living maybe too far forward and too far backwards.

In a way that we're not really fully absorbing,

Appreciating and understanding the goodness of now,

The lesson of now,

What is coming up for you in this very moment.

When you're out on a vacation worried about everything still back home.

When you're concerned about some relationship that you have while you are at a dinner,

An occasion,

A party.

These are ways that we steal away from ourselves.

And so I'd like you to connect with that and maybe a scenario that's already coming up right now for you in ways that maybe you've taken away from yourself.

Where is there room for more allowing?

Almost the privilege of being aware of now.

This is not something that's easily come by.

You don't find it all the time.

It might not happen for you often or even at all without your awareness and practices.

I'd like to remind you that a lot of the practice of Asteya is rooted in presence and the understanding and the adapting,

The bringing in of the fact that you already have exactly what you need in the moment that you are living.

You are not without.

You don't have too much and you don't have too little and you've got this wonderful little Goldilocks amount of resources at your fingertips.

If you need help,

There are people to help you.

If you need support,

There are people to support you.

If you need wisdom,

You can reflect back on your lived experiences.

Most things are accessible to you.

So we don't take too much.

We don't leave too little.

We have what we have in the moment that we have it and we do not rob ourselves of that.

Let's start to think about our energies.

Maybe ways that we also take that away from ourselves and let's start to reflect on moments where you feel like you have been stolen from things that were exciting,

Something you were willing to share,

Wanted to share,

Something that came up for you that was wonderful and great.

How does that look when something like that has been taken from you,

A moment was maybe ruined in your mind,

Your perception by someone who took that away from you or didn't allow it to carry the full weight that you thought it deserved or needed or the weight that it carried for you personally based on what you know about yourself and your life and what you dub as your successes.

And know that nobody can really take away from you in this way.

We know that.

But that doesn't mean that it doesn't happen and that doesn't mean that we are perfect in our practices and that everything is just peachy keen all the time.

That's not the way that it works.

You can be deep in your practice but still of course be affected by an energy around you,

Someone who steals a limelight,

Someone who doesn't acknowledge the weight that something carries.

Maybe these are not your people but sometimes we have to have these people around us.

They are a part of our lineage,

Our family,

Our friends.

Those we are connected to not maybe by choice or maybe by choice but we can't get along 100% of the time.

So I want you to know that though nobody can really take from you when you're really rooted in your practice and when you start to understand that for yourself and you start to understand your own validation,

How you feel about yourself,

How grateful you are for your choices,

For your adversities,

For your successes,

For what you've done for yourself.

This is the way that we find that no one can take those things from us.

And if it still ends up happening,

That is okay.

I guess that's part of it all.

Watching it,

The lessons,

Your own understanding of self,

Your own understanding of your circle,

Those around you.

It all shows something to you.

If you sit in a state of contentment and observation,

You can just watch this reveal itself to you,

Sitting in a seat of neutral.

Not wavering too far one way or the other.

Let's take an exhale here please and option to start bringing back a little bit of movement to your body,

Very minimal.

See how small you can make the movement actually.

Maybe tune in.

Notice breaths,

Gratitude for showing up and caring about yourself in this way.

Let's start to make a few bigger movements.

You can bring your knees into your chest if you're on your back and roll from side to side.

You're welcome to roll your neck out if you're in seated.

Take any stretches you feel that you need.

Starting to wake back up from this place,

This state.

Mindfully,

If you're laying down,

You're welcome to come up to a seat and just take a gentle forward fold,

Seated forward fold.

If you're already in your seat,

You're welcome to take that shape as well or something else entirely.

Let's come back up to a seat to close practice.

Bring your hands into your heart space.

Thank you for sharing practice space with me.

Please bow to seal practice.