2/26/26 Live Session Recording (Module 5)

I wasnt able to finish this module with y'all so I am finishing here! 

I see Asteya in facilitation when the facilitation stops when everyone isn't at the same pace WHICH IS OKAY! Understanding that every-body is uniquely one's own and that asana is going to vary person to person but when we can take the time to really learn each asana at the very base, creating that foundation for true connection with one's own body.
I feel that it is stealing form the facilitator if they're not sharing foundation to an asana and building up from there, it also steals from the participants that you're there to practice with and lastly from the healing that a person is there to experience maybe even for the first time of truly being safe in our own body. I have found saying something along the lines of "remember this is your body, your practice and any expectations or judgments you may have come in here either for yourself, your practie or others, please leave them outside. You know your bodys limitations, please be mindful and give yourself grace if maybe you're not going as 'far' as you'd like to or as you have before. This is simply the first hurdle, arriving here on a mat. practice isn't perfect and prefect isn't the least accessible pose for your body." Something like this really sets the groundwork for people to come into practice with gentleness for themselves. 

I had to leave class early at 5 for my own trauma therapy- perfectly timed at the ending of the ANS video. I really appreciate the sharing of that resource as I think ill begin sending it to all my clients as I begin working with them. So succinct and helpful. I think with this undertnading in mind I can imagine I would almost always use my "therapy voice' for facilitation. Additionally I imagine it will be a challenge for me to properly pace classes, as by nature I tend to speak and do things quickly at baseline, but the reality is I will probably want to go even slower- especially in the first few classes- than what feels slow for me in order to help participants slowly build their body/movement awareness. What is also clear to me is that given how nervous I am about the thought of actually facilitating... I will need notes or some sort of written guide to help support/calm my nervous system as I cue.

Hi there - thanks for this recording. Listening to Holly Lancaster's questions made me think of Patanjali's keys - sharing incase it's helpful. https://integralyogamagazine.org/patanjalis-words-the-four-keys/

Personally really struggling with the x3 foundations we've explored so far based on the current knowledge and traditional 'blue print' I learnt in a previous YTT. The foundations make sense but it's very different to the info I have. Something to keep in mind and interested to explore it in the coming weeks with you and the cohort Jen. More visual person so seeing it come to life will be helpful + the PDF book looks v helpful. 

Thanks

I really enjoyed this lesson and expanding what “stealing” looks like beyond the traditional sense. I like the information on stealing from self, specifically self-doubt and disconnection resonated most for me. I took time to reflect on how my self-doubt has not only stolen from me but then potentially from others due to hindering my full truth from self-doubt. It is beautifully overwhelming to think of how much each person has to offer the world if we allowed ourselves to live in our full truth. Thank you for this lesson!  

I have been foster parenting for 6 years and seeing the direct ways stealing hurts children after their removal from their first/biological families has been deeply heavy. Their families, common smells, traditions, often birth order, homes, schools, neighborhood...everything is taken and changed. I could go on about the affects this has, but the greatest thing I've seen post-traumatic growth for children/youth post-removal is CHOICE! When life steals the most basic parts of your routine, the way to gain back is not to just "get" the right family or "get" a bunch of stuff...it is to have people in your corner who can help you move through the pain while honoring your choices.

I have witnessed very similar levels of stealing betrayal with the ladies I work with that are incarcerated. So much of life was taken and changed because of the trauma that brought them to the carceral facility. Again, the most basic things (smells, traditions, where you lay your head down at night) is stolen. While facilitating yoga and exercise classes, teaching the women how to tap into their bodies and play with the choices we have in our practice that hour, has been very empowering and healing. I cannot offer them anything more than what is inside of them. I can help them see, play with, and explore the choices. I think this has been a strong way to honor Asteya in our practice.

It seems like Asteya and healing-empowered care can be facilitated through the most basic ways of providing choice. It always surprises me how far this goes and how meaningful it becomes, especially in foster care and incarcerated communities.  

@sadietjenksgmail-com 

I think that this training really puts choice and autonomy front and centre: for example I remember in the Introductory model, they noted that hands-on assistance and adjustments are not used in this style of yoga facilitation. I think that it's partly for obvious reasons (re the minefield that touch can be for people with trauma and in general), but also because this way of understanding yoga really prioritises people finding *their* true expression of a pose, rather than trying to mold a pose to fit with the view of what an instructor or assistant thinks is the "full" expression of the pose for one's body or what the teacher thinks the student can do.

I left the training at 17h00 and so I'm doing a forum post for the last hour-and-a-half that I missed. I think that what strikes me about the demonstrations is the pacing of it. I have done some yin and "Relax and Renew" style classes where for example one might lie in a pose, then two or three minutes later, switch sides and lie on the other side (left and then right). I've also been in "Flow" classes where the pace is quite quick, one breath for each movement. Both have a lot of value, and the former (the slow, relaxed kind) really has been helpful in teaching me how to sit and relax, which is a skill and be very difficult for many people: it really has been a gift to have a comfortable room with someone essentially saying "ok, so now hug this cushion and stare off into space". That said, the demostration that Jen did seems to be in an in-between area, where there is neither much activation nor rest, or conversely one could say it's a little bit of both. It's sometimes boring or unsettling to for me to be in that liminal space. 

I was so grateful that I was able to attend most of last week's lesson.  I left just before the ANS video which I found incredibly helpful.  I struggle with co-regulation as a parent.  Sometimes I feel other peoples' (especially my children's) emotions so intensely that it can be hard for me to center myself so that I can be there for them.  It's so incredibly interesting how sensitive or insensitive people can be to other peoples' energies.  It can be easy to be oblivious or to get to wrapped up in someone else's ANS.

While thinking about asteya in a yoga class and as a facilitator, I have also been thinking a lot about self asteya.  I think I have had a lot of missed opportunities in life and I've also not mean totally present for many occasions. 

I also would like to say that I am super excited for the workbook/PDF.  I struggle sometimes in class with being totally present because I am trying to write everything down- an example of self asteya I suppose.  I would really like to be more relaxed and to just listen.  Knowing that we have the PDF/workbook I'm hoping will allow me to really just listen and be present. 

As I listened to the recording, I had a lot of thoughts about how our ability to sit with satya and asteya are related to dissociation or our connection and comfort within the present moment. It was interesting to read methods of stealing from others, those felt more obvious to me than the forms of stealing from self... I have found myself dissociated from certain aspects of my life/ body for years. This was both initially protective and stealing from myself. I have lost so many days/weeks time traveling to the future and past, spending so many hours focusing on exactly what I can't control. Now that I am trying to practice asteya, I am trying to take each day as it comes and focus on only what I can do and control within that day. I feel different within myself, I react differently, I show up better for my clients. 

Additionally, I think of how many of ourselves and our students have had our safety stolen from us at a young age and how we these experiences can be internalized and become introjected. We can become critical and learn to steal from ourselves.

I expect asteya to be important to facilitation because focusing on the present moment, not stealing from other time; not stealing someone's worth or value through shaming or pushing expectations will all contribute to safer environments for students to practice yoga. By co-regulating with others on the mat, we can show how we practice asteya not just towards them but towards ourselves which may provide the first model for them to practice asteya towards themselves.

@helenjohnson887gmail-com thank you Helen, this is like free therapy for me!

Thanks Jen, I got alot out of the parts I missed - especially the way the ANS was explained, I will use this in my teaching. having a neuro diverse brain and navigating trauma makes being present really difficult, at 43 I have done a great job of not facing my past, unable to talk about it, own it of think about it without feeling sad/shame/vulnerability for my younger self. I can how 'stealing from yourself' through negative chat really impacts our self worth. 

I am really grateful that I have another chance at being a child again through my son (my husband says single parent life and 2 kids!!) being a mum and having that closeness with my son and creating that safe environment for him gives me purpose. 

The pause, the stillness, the not talking filling the silence. I really struggle with this. maybe when I feel calmer internally I can help others more externally. 

Stealing is simply taking anything that does not belong to you or is not given to you. Being greedy is stealing. Stealing other people´s time is also. And spending too much time in our thought patterns, or in social media, is a big theft from ourselves definitely.

There were really many good points in the session about asteya. Many things can be it. It´s an attitude towards life, towards other than "me". But maybe even towards that "me". It´s lack of respect and compassion. Deep lack of connection and a low state of development.

Grateful of all sharing and openness during the class. All the knowledge becomes integrated to real life immadiately through the discussions.

Making clear what the class is about and letting it be what is informed beforehands, is so important.

I was shocked this week when I found out that an Indian yoga teacher whose pupil I was many years ago has been incarcarated! Accused of a fraud. I Cannot believe anything such about her, she was a good person. I believe more the opposite about her. There is so much lies in media nowadays, that it´s easy to think that the real reason is hidden. And the worst thing is that the traces end last autumn - no news after that. Her social media profiles are also locked. Sensorship has taken over. 

The society can turn against people - and that is worst kind of stealing. We all become part of a society we are born into. No one askes, if we want to. Here we try to cope as good as we can. Is that right? Don´t we own our freedom, or was it ever ours to have? Maybe a very individualistic view. Maybe a cry of existence, for freedom! Anxiety caused by the realization of what kind of a global system we live in, and there is no escape!

To me facilitating a yoga class is definitely about sufficiency rather than scarcity. I´m always trying to guide people to notice what is going on in their bodies and how it feels to do something or be in a pose. That rather than trying to exceed one´s limits, deepening yoga practice is more about learning to know what exists inside of those limits! Some people are expecting something else and they are noticeably frustrated of the "too easy" yoga class. Not realizing that it is actually hard for them 🙂

It is funny, by the way, how I myself can feel this inferiority, but luckily I have commitments of teaching yoga. So I can´t just quit because I feel miserable about my stupid self. It always becomes easy when in action. Even that I can be horribly afraid and anxious beforehands. Stage fright? Also because I´m often not able to plan the sequence ready beforehands. It´s all scattered until it starts. Then it´s easy to be absorbed into the moment, and the co-existence with the participants is supporting me. 

Society stole "me" from the reality, and yoga returned that "me" back into what is real. Or at least it has brought those things closer to each other. "Me" still keeps stealing from itself - every single day. All the samskaras , traumas packed in, are like thieves in this life and many more to come, I guess. What is there to do? Keep practising and never stealing the joy of it but appreciate and reapect the effort and thank myself of the effort that I´m able to give to the practice. Never ask for too much. Just thank of what is available.

Asteya was definitely an Important lesson of my original yoga teacher training and I am consciously making sure that I don’t steal anyone’s time energy or effort in their own yoga practice.

 In the beginning of my teaching career, I do feel like there is a little bit of performance that’s was almost needed for me to facilitate yoga for others. Until we find your own voice with it, we can end up mimic favorite teachers, or compare ourselves to students and other teachers as well. find your own authentic voice with teaching comes with practice and experience.

From my perspective, teaching from sufficiency rather than scarcity is of the teachers mindset already. If you carry yourself with a scarcity mindset, then that little project outward. Similar to sufficiency and, even confidence.

What stood out to me about our discussion and trauma and your nervous system responses is that I have adopted quite a few phrases that are more neutral and non-triggering and less than terminating to especially new students and those you don’t know personally what might be going on in their life. Having talked during Covid, and not being able to hands-on adjust, has enhanced my ability to adjust verbally. Also, using those verbal adjustments to speak to the whole class and not just singling out, anyone in particular has helped everyone feel more comfortable. Others might notice they’re holding tension the same as the person I’m seeing that nonverbal communication from.

For the past five years, I have been teaching adaptive yoga for teenagers with varying abilities. It has both challenged and encouraged my practice to be more adaptive in every single class. Helping others to be more confident in their movement and balance is such an amazing experience. 

This recording gave me a new perspective of stealing that I’ve never explored. It was interesting learning about the different ways one can steal from themselves and others. What stood out mostly to me was that you can steal from yourself by doubting yourself and a lack of self advocacy/advocacy for others. The Yama asteya is truly beautiful because it helps you to become self aware of where you may be inhibiting yourself and others through your actions. Learning about the yamas have been really interesting to me and have helped me to reflect on my own life. Thank you for this beautiful teaching, Jen.