What really stood out to me in this session was how Asteya applies to so much more than just material things. It made me think about energy, attention, and how I show up. When I overextend, look for validation, or give more than I can sustain, I am taking from my own PEACE. Practicing Asteya, for me, is learning how to protect my energy and show up in a way that feels honest and sustainable.

I also realized how much I have “stolen” from myself over time. My stress response tends to be fawning—giving, accommodating, and trying to keep things smooth. It’s exhausting. And it’s not necessary anymore. I am not a little girl. I am not dependent on others for my basic needs. Remembering that helps me come back to a place of agency, STRENGTH and choice.

I noticed patterns of comparison and wanting to “get it right” as well. Just seeing that was helpful. It brought me back to the idea of sufficiency—trusting that I am enough and that I don’t need to prove anything.

The conversation around trauma and the nervous system really landed, too. It reminded me how important pacing and tone are when teaching. Slowing things down, keeping it simple, and building in somatic pauses can make a big difference. Those moments of pause are where people can actually feel something and connect...and the magic of yoga can happen ;)

I liked the sequencing framework—starting with awareness, then gentle movement, then coming back to stillness. It feels practical and accessible, especially in the environments where I teach. It doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective.

Overall, this session left me feeling more grounded in the idea of teaching from a place of ENOUGH. Not over-giving or performing, just showing up, being present, and trusting the work.

The class discussion about trauma and the nervous system was really intense, and part of why it took me a while to finish the recording. I really appreciated the video discussing the nuance of regulation versus resilience/capacity. In so many movement and vibration spaces, I hear people continually talking about nervous system regulation, and I can’t help but cringe a bit because there is an expectation to aim to be perfectly regulated, which is totally unnatural and unattainable, especially for marginalized and minoritized populations.

It’s interesting how we sort of consider stealing in one main capacity in our culture, generally in physical objects or like defined intellectual property. We often don’t think about how we steal from other people through our actions and societal norms and how our structures and systems steal from us and our communities.  I appreciated how this lecture poised the questions about stealing and the ways we steal from one another. It was also interesting to think about this in a yoga lens which I am not sure I have really formally thought about. I think in my yoga practice I have considered nonstealing and stealing in terms of how I might steal from myself or my own practice. It was a good start to thinking about how I might practice asteya as a teacher both in my teachings but also in how I show up and the space I show up in. I was also considering how as a teacher you may not have complete control of the space you teach in and the participants and community around you, and how I might grapple with making the space feel more inclusive even if I can’t change everything about the space.

Creating your own class

I ended up making a class centered around my mom, so it is a bit longer than the 5-8 minutes, but it sort of incorporated some of the things we have done thus far and used the energy awareness and range of motion. I like the idea of teaching more chair yoga because so often we are traveling or at work in a chair and can start to easily incorporate these into our daily lives outside of our set practice!

Opening & Setting the Stage

• Welcome participants into class
• Introduce myself and explain that this will not be a traditional vinyasa class that one might have attended before
• This is an opportunity for you to safely connect with your body in this space. I will provide offerings for you to explore your body. We will begin with an energy awareness to allow you to better enter the space for our range of motion practice today. The energy awareness is an opportunity for you to explore and check in with your body prior to stillness in the practice. Then we will move to a centering and through an exploration of range of motion of our body and our emotions in tandem. Throughout the range of motion, we will come back to stillness. Through this safe and supported interplay, we will help to teach our bodies to regulate through a wide range of motion.

Energy Awareness

• We will start seated today in a chair or on the ground. First, I will just invite everyone to find a comfortable seat. Then, ask them to wiggle around and look around – see who is seated next to you, give gratitude to the individuals who are joining the practice, explore the room and see what is around you. Get yourself into this space.
• As you come into the space, take one breath or a few breaths to feel anchored in your seat for a moment and just notice. Notice how are you feeling today? What are the qualities of your first few breaths of class? What energy are you coming in with today?
• And then I invite you to explore gently shifting in your seat side to side.
  • And if you’re feeling a good amount of energy today maybe you’re bouncing your shoulders or your hands or stomping your feet a few times
  • If you’re feeling more slow moving maybe you are making some circles with your body or slowly shifting from side to side.
  • Just naturally move your body in your seat meeting the energy you feel in your body.
  • Maybe you’re unsure what you feel and you try a few different movements, maybe you settle on one or two movements
• Notice where in your body you’re feeling energy or heat and where you’re feeling stagnant
• And after a few rounds of breath exploring your energy levels, gradually come into more stillness, you can place your hands on your heart and belly or just on your lap or knees. If you feel safe, you can close your eyes here.
  • And just notice in a moment of stillness, how you’re feeling now? You may be a bit more energized from the movement feeling your heart beating faster or breathing more rapidly. Or you may feel calm and centered. You may feel the need to keep moving, maybe there is somewhere you still feel needs a bit of resituating or release.
• Come into a few rounds of breath here in a more still seat. Without changing anything in your breath just notice where your breath is today. Notice as the energy moves through you.
• And I invite you to set an intention, if you have your own or you can try saying “I honor my body, thanks body for carrying me through this life, you are awesome! Let’s explore together!”

Range of Motion

• Seated spinal warm up
  • Shoulder circles
  • Neck
    • Twist
    • Side to side
    • Circles
  • Explore the range of motion in your wrists and hands
  • Explore the range of motion in your ankles with a few ankle circles
  • Explore the range of motion in your elbows extending your arms
  • Explore the range of motion of the knees just extending and bringing your knees back in
  • And then explore your shoulders maybe sway or do some arm circles
    • Maybe it’s both or one arm
  • Explore reaching in your chair
    • Reaching arms to both sides to the front and back
    • Reach the legs
    • Reach for your feet
    • Explore the chair your sitting in and just notice what your range of motion is in the chair
    • And notice how does that feel physically and also emotionally
  • Moment of stillness & centering
  • Cat/Cow – explore spinal flexion and extension
  • Moment of stillness & centering
  • Side stretching/bending (seated in chair)
  • Moment of stillness & centering
  • Spinal twisting (seated in chair)
  • Moment of stillness & centering
  • Hamstring stretches (seated in chair)
  • Moment of stillness & centering
  • Figure four (chair)
  • Moment of stillness & centering
  • Forward Fold
  • Moment of stillness & centering

Reflection

Seated or lying down shavasana/centering/meditation 

 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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.