The third week of my ethical principles of yoga was centered around Asteya, or non-stealing. While immediately you may think of money or possessions, it goes deeper than that. It can be about not stealing time, energy, space, attention, joy, or ideas. The list could likely go on. My practice ended up being about stealing time – from myself – in the form or procrastination. We’ll get into that shortly. First let’s get a little clearer on ways Asteya can be incorporated into our lives… (from the Yamas & Niyamas book)
- Dissatisfaction with ourselves and our lives leads us to look outward with a tendency to steal what is not rightfully ours.
- Taking attention away from someone else is a form of stealing – whether you bring the focus back to yourself in a conversation or just completely step in and override them. “Be a forklift” instead of a bulldozer – uplift those around you, don’t squash them.
- Take nothing without giving something back. See if you can come from a perspective where everything available to you is something precious that is only on loan – and while you borrow it, you are asked to care for it.
- Live as if we are caretakers of past and future lives. Our ancestors sacrificed and worked hard in order to allow us to live the way we do today. Our children will inherit what we leave behind. Make all decisions as if they mattered 7 generations into the future.
- Don’t rush through life. Take time to pause and allow experiences to become a part of you. Rest and digest. Reflect and contemplate. Don’t let experiences be stolen from your memory because you were “too busy.” And in that same vein, don’t make yourself so crazy that you have no time or energy left. Don’t steal your own energy by overbooking yourself.
- Grow and become knowledgeable and competent in what you desire, in order for life to entrust you with those important things.
- Don’t steal someone’s joy or someone’s good day by complaining and loading your negativity onto them.
You can steal from yourself as well as from others, which before this exercise I had never contemplated before. I went into this week with the knowledge of the above bullet points, but I ended up really focusing on stealing my own time. I have a bad habit of procrastinating – any and everything. I’ve been trying to work on this, and it fell into place as the week progressed.
One example of working on not stealing my own time began by the simple act of timing my showers. I love water and can take a ridiculously long shower for absolutely no reason other than it being warm and cleansing. I started putting a 15-minute timer on and seeing if I could make it out before it went off. It was surprising how easy it was to take a shower in less than 15 minutes – without even rushing. I’ve been continuing this habit and now I sometimes forget the timer and still make it out within my time limit. I was stealing time from myself. I was stealing extra water from the earth. I was also racking up our hot water bill unnecessarily. A small practice with a big reward.
The very thought that I was stealing my own time was enough to get me up and moving when I fell into something less than productive: Netflix binging when dishes needed to be done, reading an extra chapter when I really needed to go to sleep, etc. There were so many ways that I felt I could implement it. It became a little voice in the back of my head, “could you be doing something better with this time?” Over the course of the week I got so much done and felt much better about my usage of time. And so, the practice continues. A new habit is born.
Next week: being mindful of your energy. 😊
Raising LeBar 