Asteya - Non-stealing

Asteya.  Non-stealing.  Don't take things that aren't mine.  Got it!  What's next?

I'm no mind reader, but I would bet that the above is pretty close to what you are thinking right now. And guess what, you're right! That's exactly what asteya is about. Stealing is bad. We all know that.  But, in the interest of provoking thought, let's take asteya a step further.

A central concept of yoga is "living in the now."  Before I started a regular yoga practice this phrase used to really irritate me.  'Of course I live in the now, where else am I going to live?!'  Well, eventually I discovered that I was constantly fluctuating between living in the past and living in the future. Some thing would happen, I would get caught up in it, go over and over what happened in my head, then start planning what I would do in the future to make it better.  Back and forth, past and future.  My body may have been in the present, but I certainly was not. Ultimately, I was stealing the opportunity to really experience life from myself.

Your challenge for today - do something today that is all about the now.  Go for a short walk, or sit quietly away from your computer, and really BE there; take in the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feel of the air on your skin.  Pay attention to how you feel.  Are you upset? Are you relaxed?  Don't try to change that feeling, or figure out why it's there, just experience it. You may even find that once you take the time to experience what you're feeling, it magically transform into peacefulness. Regardless, just be in the moment once today and see how it feels.