The Yamas - Asteya

Freedom comes from within. 

Photo by Kelsey White

In past articles, we've explored Ahimsa and Satya, the first two yamas from the text "The Yoga Sutras".  Today we'll discuss and take a look at asteya.  Asteya is the practice of non-stealing.  It is the respectful observance of sources that have contributed to your life or surround you in written, spoken, energetic, or situational exchange.

One way you can think of this practice as utilizing the academic use of bibliographies to ensure that you are giving proper credit to those who have introduced or developed the information that is presented to you in life. Another way is to respect the time and energy of yourself and those around you. Practicing asteya enables us to honor the community we come from and interact with in our lives, while simultaneously lifting each other up energetically instead of eroding the very forces that sustain and build us all.

Asteya, when practiced well, can physiologically affect individuals, including yourself.  When we practice asteya, we are able to positively support brain chemistry including our serotonin and dopamine levels. These two chemicals are related to doing a good job and value or stature. The more we practice giving people the credit they deserve, the more we help elevate their level of self-worth, value, and appreciation and the less likely individuals will experience chemical imbalances that result in symptoms like depression, anxiety, and social fears.

Be aware of asteya in:

Photo by Mary Wrightson

• Your speech, writing, artwork/creations
• Use of imagery on social media
• Exchanges with teachers, professors
• Exchanges with friends, family and lovers
• Your own energy expenditures (thoughts, actions, emotions, words)

Ask yourself:

• Did I come up with this?
• Where did this (idea, thought, emotion, item, etc) come from? 
• Am I living presently or focusing on past or future?
• Am I adding to, taking away from, or being neutral in this situation?
• Is there reciprocity in this situation or my day to day life?
• How can I give more credit to my wealth of knowledge or those around me?
• Do I know how to say no to others when it is depleting of my own energy? 

Enjoy taking a deeper look within and starting to become aware of your patterns and habits. As always, if you need support or assistance in working with this topic and construct in your life, please contact us to set up an energy or coaching session with one of our professionals so you can live beyond limit and start living the life you'd like to live. 

What to Look for in A Yoga Teacher

Not all teachers are created equal and there are. Not all trainings that are "Yoga Alliance" certified are credible or complete in how they're taught and what they require "certified teachers" to demonstrate before getting out and teaching people in groups and one on one.  With all of the trainings, certifications, styles, and advertising on the web or in magazines it's hard to know what to look for and how to identify whether or not you're in good hands, so we've made a few pointers for you to be able to feel informed about the studios, teachers, and environments you place yourself within.

Overall the  most important things when you're looking for a yoga instructor are:

1. Knowledge and incorporation of the philosophy and energetics of yoga. 
   • Look to see how they define yoga.  The sanskrit translation is "yoking of mind, body, and spirit," meaning it's helping you connect with you on all levels. 
   • The philosophy begins with the Yamas (social observances) and Niyamas (personal observances), involves postures, breathwork, internalizing the senses to connect with your inner experience, concentration, meditation, and takes you as far as samadhi (bliss/oneness/absorption with your surroundings/infinite consciousness/etc).
   • The energetics involves bandhas (supports/locks), vayus (subtle winds or energies of the body), koshas (layers of self and experience), kleshas (root of suffering) at a minimum.  
   • You'll see more life results in a quicker amount of time by practicing and learning the full philosophy and energetics than you will by practicing the physical postures alone.
2. Knowledge of the physical body, postures, and how to adapt to make them accessible to all persons in the room.
   • See if they're familiar with anatomy and physiology.  Do they know what muscles are doing what? Can they help you target and locate what you need to find to get into the postures? Do they ask you to find control and restraint at times and work deeper at other times?  Do they offer modifications and levels of the postures for all students to work at their own pace? 
3. Offers adjustments without force and with your permission.
   • Adjustments should only be offered to help you learn how to find the alignments, space, or ease in your own experience.  If your teacher forces the movement or posture onto your body, it doesn't help you figure out how to find it on your own.  Those that use light touch, visual cues, verbal cues, sensory cues, etc are better teachers and will help you grow more in the long run in a safer and healthier manner.
   • Consent is key.  With so many of us walking around with traumas and personal preferences, it's important that your teacher give you the option to say you rather not be touched in class.  Whether they ask if it's okay, offer chips to mark if you'd like adjustments for class, or ask you to make a gesture in your opening meditation so they know who is and is not comfortable with physical assists, permission is VITAL so you feel safe and respected in your body and practice. 
4. Clear with instructions and able to demonstrate, explain, and assist you with the practice.
   • They should be easy to follow and understand as you go through class.  If you're confused the whole time, they refuse to demo to help you figure out where to go or what you're doing and what you need to be doing...well then they may not be the best teacher for you.
5. Warm, friendly, supportive, and approachable. 
   • It's important your teacher makes your feel comfortable in the skin you're in and actually cares about you beyond your mat.  If you have feedback or concerns about your practice or their teaching, it's important that they create an environment where you feel comfortable voicing your needs so you can feel safe and supported in your yoga journey.
   • They get excited to share with you and to see you grow.  They help you notice your progress and celebrate your developing practice.  They notice your small and big shifts and changes.
6. Professional in appearance and demeanor.
   • It's important that the teacher is professional and focuses on you or the class you're in as a whole instead of focusing on their own practice or problems.  While sometimes a teacher's personal journey can be a powerful teaching experience and offer you permission to be sensitive to your own grown and needs, it should not be the main focus of the class as they are there to teach and serve you and your development.  
   • It's important they care about their hygiene and appearance to an extent. One of the main pillars of yoga philosophy is cleanliness, so if they're always looking disheveled and a bit rough or potent smelling, they are showing disrespect to both you and themselves. 
7. They LIVE their practice. 
   • Yoga isn't just a hobby for them. The best teachers are those who take their practice into their daily lives in every waking moment.  They're present in themselves, they listen and like to be challenged to learn and grow, they care about the world, and they are focused on being their best selves.

We hope this guide helps you target the teachers who will be able to best help you deepen your practice.  We support the new teachers who are working to develop their knowledge base and ability to teach and guide students, but recommend those with a bit more training and experience to ensure a safe, supportive, and powerful environment to help you know your investment in yourself is going to be well worth the efforts and professional attention.

Have questions or need help finding the right teacher for you?  Shoot us a message at katew@livebeyondlimit.com or use our Contact page to receive some support.

Pura Vida - Live Pure and Presently

Pura Vida.  Pure Living. Bliss.   Existing in your perfect consciousness and authentic expression. Yoga. Perfectly connected and balanced mind, body, and spirit.

Our life experience and consciousness is defined by how many things change in our lives, and I'm going to encourage that you embrace a heck of a lot more change and a lot less strict routine to heighten your life experience and be more aware, present, and balanced.  Once we get in a rut in our practice, our life, our activities and thoughts we create what we call in yoga samskaras.  These are patterns and pathways our energy takes and the more defined and determined the samskara, the more limited our awareness and experience as our brain creates neurological pathways to reinforce behaviors, perspectives, and thought patterns.  

To live pure, or free of these binding patterns we must be consciously aware and open to the constant flux the universe exists within.  When we open our minds to what more there can be, the brain is happy to create new pathways for the infinite potential of experiences in existence.  

For example, in your yoga practice, you may find yourself anticipating the next movement or breath pattern, but frequently the teacher asks you to do something different even though your anticipation had you starting something else, which suggests a lack of true presence and awareness of the moment. 

If we live purely and consciously we can stay whole and present in the moment and learn to react to what is and not just what we are expecting.  Our reactions then are based off of the current situation and not pre-existing knowledge and patterning giving us the opportunity to move outside of the samskaras and previous neruo-pathways to new pathways and the ability to grow and evolve in each moment. 

In doing this, we often are able to free ourselves of pre-conceived ideas that bring stress and suffering to our being and the yamas and niyamas (the first two set of practices in the yoga system) become effortless in the process. By relieving unnecessary stressors from our lives, our physiology begins to shift and our fascia begins to relax.  This enables the body to become more open and regenerate at a higher rate, which then leads to less discomfort and a greater range of motion in the physical practice of yoga and a more full experience off the mat in life.    

To be present is to be whole. To be whole is to truly be yourself and not what others have tried to make you. 

Give it a try and be surprised at what reveals itself to you in your experiences.  

AcroYoga Base Test

AcroYoga Base Test

Authored by: Jessica Schultz

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Poses 3a and 3b teach the base to stay steady when the flyer lifts off.

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3a   

BASE Stay on your back, stacking your feet over your hips.

FLYER Cross your forearms and stack them onto the base’s feet. You can make eye contact with your base to establish trust.

ALIGNMENT TIP

BASE: If your legs are too long compared with your flyer’s height, bend knees as necessary.

3b

FLYER Press your folded arms into your base’s feet and lift your legs off the ground.

BASE Straighten your legs into a 90-degree or L shape, stacking your feet over your hips for stability.

ALIGNMENT TIP

BASE: If your legs are tight and you can’t straighten them, try placing a folded blanket under your pelvis. Keep your knees slightly bent, with your heels directly over your hips.

What is Yoga?

Yoga is the connection of the self to the self, to put it simply.  It refers to being in sync with all aspects of yourself.

The word yoga means "to yoke" and refers to the yoking of mind, body, spirit, and emotion through practice and through life.  While some may view the "bendy" postures and development of physical flexibility as yoga, they often time overlook the understanding of the self that these postures are designed to reveal and the flexibility that is gained through developing continuity of the self via practice.  

Yoga traditionally has 8 limbs consisting of becoming aware and mastering how we interact with others, ourselves, our physical movement, our breath, internal awareness, focus, meditative capacity, and ability to be connected to peace and ease.  Mastery of the self can only happen once we finally accept who and what we are, what we're driven to, what we find pleasure in, and all of our "shadows" from our past or present.  

Live Beyond Limit and more traditional studios aim to teach you all aspects of yoga so you can enjoy more ease, abundance, and joy in life via the practice of working with yourself on all levels. 

Yoga helps us learn to live fully, freely, and peacefully within ourselves and the world.

20 Minute Spinal Ease Flow

Whether you're just waking up or getting ready to unwind for the day, take a moment to give your body a little TLC and give this 20 minute flow an opportunity to open you up, release any held tension, and provide a little more mobility and freedom to your spine itself.

Enjoy the flow.

The Bliss of Living in the Now

Research and practice show time and time again that mindfulness and living in the moment helps an individual to live with physiological and emotional stress.

According to studies and recommendations from Harvard, Oxford and UC Santa Barbara mindfulness and present living helps to reduce symptoms of stress, depression and addictions and enhances working memory and recall.  Pretty cool huh?  So why don't more of us partake in this wonderful practice? What does it even mean to "live in the now" or to practice being "mindful"? I get these questions a lot from clients and friends trying to minimize the chaos and unwanted events in their lives.

It's hard to live in the now because of the chemical and energetic imprints made as reactions to the stressors in your life. We are an overstressed and under-restored population as a whole.  Chemically we should bounce back to resting states quickly, but with our culture and social structure/interactions we have a hard time getting away from the stressors.

It's hard work to stay positive and stay in the moment of each and every experience.  It take practice....a lot of practice.  Happy, realistic and optimistic people choose to be that way.  They choose to focus on what they have and the things that are going well and use problem solving and stress management tools to cope and or change the things that are less than ideal.

In the moment individuals put the cup down and empty it after each interaction they have. Think of stress like this:

How much does a glass of water feel like it weighs?  How much does it weigh an hour later? A week? A year?  It progressively gets heavier and heavier and after enough time, your arm will give out from fatigue.  That's just like you're body! (Thanks to whomever originated this parallel).  

Therefore, if you have been in a stressful situation and you've left and moved on to the next event of your day, or the next day itself, forget about the stress source and focus on your new space and the tasks at hand.  Cycling through the situation, replaying or planning the next conversation and or allowing yourself to feel awful will only distract you from your present task, rob your happiness and leave you less productive and less pleasant to be around. 

Feel in the moment.  Notice what you're feeling and when you're feeling it so you can start molding your situations to help you feel great. This is the practice of self-study or svadhyaya.  Notice and change your perspective or walk away from the things that make you feel awful. Engage more frequently in the situations that make you feel free, joyful and celebrated.

Be aware.  If things turn sour in a situation ask yourself "What happened? Am I being defensive? If so, why am I being defensive?  Did the mood shift because of something I said or did? Do people move away from me or towards me?"  Look to yourself in a situation first and foremost, and only if you realize that it wasn't you evaluate what you'll do about the company you're in to ensure that you are able to stay present, mindful and engaged in healthy relationships and actions.

Lastly, but certainly not least, focus on the good stuff that is happening in the moment.  Every situation has two sides, so instead of stressing about the less than ideal conditions, enjoy the great ones. Enjoy your senses, nature, company and the things that surround you each moment.

The Yamas - Ahimsa

The Yamas are the first "limb" of yoga as concluded by Pantanjali, a famous sage who brought together the teachings behind yoga in his compilation The Yoga Sutras.  

These social observances are boiled down principles to govern your actions, motives, and behaviors as you interact not only with yourself, but with your community. We will look closely at ahimsa today, or non-harming. 

Ahimsa:  Non-Harming/ Non-Violence

Ahimsa is simply practicing to reduce physical, mental, emotional, environmental, and spiritual harm and violence.  This yama requests that you take a look at your actions and see how you can live more symbiotically with your community in order to foster health and vitality around you instead of harm and destruction.  

Practicing ahimsa in your words means using intentional communication.  Intentional communication considers all factors going into the exchange to ensure that the intention of the words spoken are able to be received and understood fully. 

Examples:

•   Communicate intentionally by asking: Is it true? Is it necessary? Can it be spoken to minimize harm?

•   Try to go organic – your money gives energy to the industry standards you accept

•   Buy local produce and products to minimize the use of petrochemicals in transport while boosting local economy.

•   Get plenty of sleep. Sleep is when your body recovers and rehydrates from the day prior

•   Use compassion with those who are unhappy or suffering

•   Release judgments of yourself and others

•   Create strong boundaries for yourself and others to respectfully operate within