Practicing Asteya

Lotus
Originally uploaded by Marilyn P. Sushi

Asteya is one of the yamas in the first limb of Yoga. I was reading about this last night and it really struck a cord. Although it literally means "nonstealing" it also means not taking on more than we can handle, whether it's material consumption or time and energy consumption.

For the last couple of weeks, my right eye has been twitching non-stop, surely a sign of stress. So I am reading about Asteya with my tweaky eye and a mental picture in my mind appeared of a sign that said "YOU!" with a big arrow with flashing lights pointing right at me. In the traditional sense, I don't horde things or have collections of things where I can barely move around my home, I love cupcakes but I know my limit! At first think I don't have a problem with this but then I went deeper.

On average I get 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I often find myself saying "There's just not enough time during the day." While at work, I've been spending time wondering what I'm going to do when I leave in a few months, leaving tomorrow's "To Do" list grow. A lot of us put more on our 'mental plate' than we realize. With me, it's my 9 to 5 job, my Etsy shop, two blogs, keeping my yoga practice alive, and whatever other things the day may decide to throw at me.

My right eye tells me "Stay off the internet for the rest day!" and this can be quite a challenge for me! It's funny how I consider myself to be such an organized, time-management perfectionist when it comes to work but in my personal life I'm a mess. I have THREE calendars to refer to. But seriously, the internet is not going anywhere, I can lay off and do something else more beneficial to my mind and soul, maybe even go to bed at least 30 minutes earlier.