3/6/25 Live Session Recording (Module 5)

I loved this week's topic on Asteya, because I've learnt ways I was ignorant, that caused suffering. I freshly graduated from undergraduate studies and have been use to the fast pace lifestyle. Now, that I am figuring out my footing in the "real world", I've tranferred over that fast pace conditioning to my interests. I've never had a issue pursing my interest, but was ignorant in taking my time with these interest, allowing time to grow competency. This lack of awareness also traveled into my attachment in "I'm not where I should be/ or want to be". These expectations stole from my positive and outcomes of my interest. 

This module or timing has been the most challenging, especially after some of the discussions brought up. What I mean by this is over the past few years I have been reconditioning myself and changing my paradigm through mindfulness, law of attraction, transmutation of energy, and the other universal laws and these are very similar to yoga as well. Through these practices, I am able to reach for thoughts that serve me and caring about how I feel and not getting stuck in a doom loop of things beyond my control. Looking for things that are going good in the world and giving that energy and seeing where change needs to be made and making an intention to see where I can contribute in a positive way. This is one of the reason why I don’t spend much time on social media because it is a venting platform of what is wrong with everyone else but ourselves. I recognize this for myself as double edge sword because I could be missing out on opportunities to understand others experiences but, yet i am stealing from myself by not staying true to my boundaries and incorporating a safe and non harming way to focus on the present and move forward. But, this could also be seen as an aversion. “ The day you teach the child the name of the bird, the child will never see that bird again” - Krishnamurti. With this quote my biggest take away from this discussion is to refrain from having to affix a label or provide and explanation for what feels right for me and keep revisiting and reframing. 

I love when Darnell said, "Let them see the care in your heart." There are some divergent "views" in the broader "Christian" community, especially pertaining to social issues. I am 100% on the liberal side of the "Christian" community. And while I believe the Christian Nationalists are doing way more harm than good, screaming back won’t always do the trick to advocate for the marginalized communities I serve. Rather, showing people the care in my heart and the purest intentions in my work will be more effective. It reminds me that the application of my faith is more important than declaring that I’m right, (even though I am right).

I also love the Patanjali principle of “Making sure you are making progress” and not being stuck in suffering. For me, progress is without judgment, it merely means some kind of forward motion, whether in strength of my faith, deeds or thinking. Maybe the daily decision to not want to be stuck in suffering is the progress?

Asteya is a BIG ONE! I walked away feeling a thief, mostly stealing from myself. I struggle with so many of the things, self-doubt, defensiveness/retaliation, perception, gossip and lack of self-advocacy. It feels overwhelming.

Honoring the unique experience of others, without trying to impact the experience of others.

Body shaming is stealing….

Trauma has stolen so much form me and from the ability to have healthy relationships.

Hi all, 

I was able to join for part of this week's session and just caught up on what I missed. I am thinking about non-stealing, especially working with incarcerated population, some of whom may had to depend on some form of stealing in their lives to survive, and I appreciate how broadly the term can be applied when thinking of asteya. I also think about our legacy of stealing in white body supremacy, the land that was and continues to be stolen from indigenous populations, stealing of African bodies to work the land to create wealth for white plantation owners, and all of the various forms of stealing that happen politically and socially. What I hear a lot of from the clients I work with is the time that they are serving, and how some folks have had lengthy sentences, and the time that is stolen away from them and their families and how that continues generational trauma. For myself I think I can incorporate non-stealing into my work when teaching yoga to the population, as a white person acknowledging that these practices were not given to me from family and my own culture and honoring the teachers that I have learned from. 

I appreciated all of the shares, Alex again for your ongoing vulnerability, your reflections on how trauma shaped your experiences growing up. I also was touched by Kari's share about how co-regulation supported her in the grief she experienced/experiences. It is nice to put a concept idea with what we already do as Kari was alluding to, I think we most likely seek out stable, supportive people when we are unbalanced and there is a lot of power in stabilizing yourself with breath and attunement when others are seeking us out for support as well. 

I appreciated all of the information on the Yoga Sutras, I purchased one of the books and I have yet to dive in, and it was nice to get an overview as a foundation. I was thinking about the history and context of when this was written and thinking about how much our attention/distraction/concentration has changed just over the last 30 or so years with technology/social media. It really is such a practice to stay present and not get swept up, my husband and I have created a norm in our house that at least two evenings per week we are off of screens and it just helps us connect with each other and spend our time together in a less distracted way. 

@taralouise I laughed when I saw your comment about being right lol, I don't know who said it, but my colleague has often used the phrase, do you want to be right or do you want to be free? Love that thought and re-frame.

😉 

Such an amazing session. I've found myself tuned out during various sessions due to my own issues that I'm working through. What Jen said about acknowledging our ADHD or difficulties focusing, but not making ourselves victims to that resonated with me. Also when Jen talked about wanting something, but feeling like we're not good enough and stealing from ourselves, that also resonated with me. I often find myself doing that when it comes to learning environments. Self sabotage. I feel myself doing it with this class, which I was so excited to take. I honestly should've counted the amount of times I paused and rewound the recording because I tuned out. I wanted to truly soak up that discussion and I feel like I did that and also got a lot out of it, so I'm proud of myself for that. 

When reflecting on what stealing is and where I learned it from I realized I wasn't looking into stealing as deeply as we were being asked to reflect on it at first. When I began reflecting I could see that I learned it from everywhere listed: My family, community, school, media, literature, and religion. Most of the stealing I experienced feels like it was based around my time being stolen, as well as, my identity and my voice. Feeling like I had to be as outgoing as the rest of my family to get the attention I needed or morph into the white community I was in or replicate the way I saw desirable women being perceived in the media, to name a few things.

There's honestly so much more I could write about, and I may come back into this discussion thread to add more, but my favorite take away was: Yoga asks us to be compassionate and non harming and realize we don’t have control over other people’s actions or the right to put expectations on them. All we can do is understand them and meet them where we’re both at. We're each on our own healing journey and need to learn how to work together. 

Such a great video explaining the nervous system!! I saw myself in the little emoji for ANS haha he was super relatable and easy to follow. I liked the idea of that the nervous system mimics the ones of who your around, it made me think that there is a lot of people in my life who are dysregulated and negatively impact me on my day to day whether it be at work or home. I also liked how it said trauma is the RESPONSE not the EVENT ! That was ground breaking for me. 

I will do some journaling about how I have stolen from myself and reflect on how I have stolen opportunities from people without realizing it.

Have a lovely start to March!! 😀 

Module 5

Great sharing opening as usual.  I really appreciate everyone opening up and sharing their personal experiences and the insights as to how this course is sitting with them and how they are practicing it in the world and their personal lives be it teaching or just personal interactions. 

Missed the formal movement practice!

Asteya - non-stealing

How we steal from ourselves and other by not being true to who we really are or by putting someone in a box of how they should be not accepting them for who they are.  Honor yours and others uniqueness.  This is what yoga is asking of us in an effort to be non harmful and influence the actions of others.

We steal from ourselves and others in so many ways. 

Society distorts our own human perception

We steal from ourselves by focusing on the actions of others.  We need to be content within ourselves to navigate our world honestly. 

The ANS video was good to help us better understand the fight and flight mode and how it is so adverse on our systems.  Trauma is genetic and can remain up to 3 generations and can appear in many diffferent forms.  It is the response to the event of trauma that adversely affect us on so many different levels from physical to emotional conditions.

We can retrain ANS to where we can feel safe again by connecting to others who are safe and healthy.  Yoga is a way to help regulate ANS helping us have a flexible and regulated nervous system.  I appreciated ways you all shared how you self regulated.

We all experience trauma in so many different ways again thanks for sharing your trauma experiences.

Very interesting that one of the translations of the Sutras is written by a female and that the 4 “books” have more of a love bent.

We learn from the sutras how to be aware of the mind and how it can work with the body and help us create order and connection.

YOGA is a PRACTICE!!!  It helps us realized we ALL are spirit!

Practice of yoga allows the mind to talk and to be active. But yoga supports the mind and body to be one.

I am interested to observe how the excesses in my life feel in my body!

Another great lesson! Transparently, I was in a difficult spot mentally the week of this session, so I went back and forth a few times joining the space live/leaving to try and center myself. I decided to let myself rest towards the end, so catching up now. Everything discussed resonated so much. I appreciated the discussion/video about trauma! I've read The Body Keeps the Score and have been trying to soak up as much information as I can about this-the ANS video really helped cement my understanding in a digestable way. I also really enjoyed the discussion around asteya, and the sutras. Wonderful shares from everyone. Thanks all 🙂

@eyznaga Hi Emma - the audio book version of The Body Keeps the Score is one of the best I've listened to. The narrator has no connection to the theories and isn't a therapist etc, but he gets really passionate as he reads the book, and it's infectious. I've listened to it again and again, and it's like a short course in compassion, empathy, love, and psychological theory. Highly recommended. When I stop to have to go and do something else, I feel very humble and calm. And the chapters on yoga are EXCELLENT. Bessel van der Kolk is a really nice guy isn't he?

Hi! 

I am a little late on this, but now just getting around to catching up on this Module. I am fascinated to be learning about nervous system responses, and exactly how they work within us -- as someone that has always been interested in psychology and mental health, this has helped me more greatly understand the way trauma responses become long-term, and the necessity to be sensitive towards this in a yogic space. 

Aside from this very objective process, applying it to a yoga practice is especially interesting to me because yoga provides the space to sit with these short-term and long-term responses in times that this wouldn't necessarily be practical. Thinking about the nervous system response in the context of Asteya helps me understand how humans 'steal' from each other -- and these stolen things don't necessarily have to be tangible -- but they create lived experiences that deprive individuals of freedom in mind, body, or general wellbeing. I think Asteya provides an avenue for us all to be more understanding of one another and leads to an accumulation of compassion and empathy that prevents us from causing harm to ourselves or others. In addition, thinking about things that I have stolen from myself, whether intentional or not, is an incredibly powerful mindfulness practice. 

During this session, I found myself deeply moved by the discussion of Asteya (non-stealing). While it may seem like a simple concept on the surface, it touched something much deeper within me. I realized how often I unconsciously "steal" from myself—stealing my own potential, confidence, and joy by letting self-doubt win. Sometimes, I feel like I'm not good enough to do certain things, even when I know I'm capable. These feelings, I recognize, are rooted in my ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and reinforced by societal pressures—particularly those surrounding beauty and perceived worthiness. These barriers have held me back, but I'm committed to practicing Asteya by no longer robbing myself of opportunity, self-trust, and growth. I want to show up for myself fully and honor my inner knowing.

Another powerful takeaway was the trauma and nervous system (polyvagal) perspective video. Learning that trauma can be passed down through as many as three generations really struck me—especially the role of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in this process. It helped me make sense of why certain responses feel so automatic, so deeply ingrained. Trauma disrupts the ANS and keeps it in a constant state of "protect mode," preventing us from feeling safe enough to relax, connect, or trust.

This especially resonated in the context of a personal trauma I've recently experienced—infidelity in my last relationship. Betrayal shakes your foundation and sends the ANS into overdrive. But now, with this deeper understanding, I feel empowered to take healing into my own hands. I want to rebuild that sense of safety in my body, to trust again—not just others, but myself. Healing my nervous system feels like an act of resistance, of reclaiming agency. It's not just about the past—it’s about freeing my future relationships from the grip of past pain.

Happy Saturday January 2025 Cohort!  I actually finished this recording yesterday and provided a post/response but, when I hit enter, the system gave me an "error message" and it did not take.  Honestly I was like "f^&* it!" at the time....then coming back to it today I realized how the whole experienced emphasized Energy, which was the initial topic discussed on March 6th.  Yesterday my Post included an energy awareness check-in of stress, anxiety, mind reeling with things to do (and just the discussion helped) but then the error message dropped my Energy to a point where I just walked away.  Today I am thinking about how I might have intervened on that Energy drop by some small range of motion exercises, or even if I had closed my eyes to connect to my breathe.....it is easy to think NOW about how that would have helped me but I just was not in the space to allow it in.  So for today, this experience has given me some practical experience and insight on how challenging it can be for me, future participants to be able to take a pause and work on regulating energy.  Sounds easy but feels hard.  I also wanted to comment on the general discussion on what I will describe as "chronic oppression".  As a perceived white male, I find myself in situations where others have assumed that I am a MAGA supporter, or that I must like what is going on because it is all meant to benefit me (white male)...it's pretty shocking how many people just assume that I would be that self-absorbed, focused and self-serving.  I think Jen stated that it was hard to believe that anyone can feel/act/perceive that discrimination, oppression, misogyny, etc. is an OK way of Life....I have family that think that way!  CRAZY!  I now say "I may Love you because you are my family but I do NOT like you!".  I have experience chronic rejection since the day I was born....I am too soft, too focused on helping others, too girly, not man enough enough and it just goes on and on about this toxic-male expectation that is placed on many of us.  While it was not easy to live though as a child and in early adulthood, I have such immense Gratitude that I seemed to have an innate resiliency to it all and I continue to be the  "soft, caring, nurturing" soul that I was born as....I do strive and fight to live my Truth!  Lastly, thank you Jen for covering the four books of Patanjali.  My yoga teacher shared/gifted this book to me many years ago.  SO hard to read because just one sentence can give you something to digest for weeks!  Your breakdown and summary really helped me to put it all in a framework.  Yoga as a Lifestyle REALLY resonated with me, that is was what I am striving for in my Life right now and this really helped to ground me.  It does not just happen on the mat....it's in my speech, my thoughts, my day-to-day movements....I feel like it is the essence of what this class is working to impart.  Namaste for it all and to all of you!  Jeff 🙂