Asteya

Non-stealing - Non-greediness - Non-coveting

The previous yama was truth, or honesty, and you can see how it it related to the next yama, non-stealing. If you have not cultivated honesty, perhaps it is easier to take from others what is not yours to have. Thus cultivating your truth and honesty will make it easier to perform this yama.

Not taking material things that are not yours is perhaps quite easy for most (honest)people. But this yama goes much further than that. Not only is it about not taking things from others, but also about not coveting. Coveting is a way of not being satisfied with what you have, and with what you don´t have. So this yama is related to santosha, contentment.

You can steal from others things that are intangible as well. Like someones time. Next time you are late to an appointment, think about the lack of respect this means for the other person. Taking someones energy. If you only talk about yourself and your problems with someone for example, never asking them about anything, you are actually stealing the other persons energy. Have you ever felt drained after meeting certain people? Then this person has probably taken your energy. Give people your full attention and respect, and this will not happen. Then you are giving, not taking.

Sometimes you can loose energy by coveting things that other people have. Like someones looks, job, relationships, house, money, fame or what have you. Take time to really think about what it is that you really want. Is it really those things, or does the feeling come from something deeper. A lack of self love maybe? Discontentment in general maybe? Instead, take that energy and direct it inward to cultivate the things that you already have. If you covet someones love relationship, realise that you already are full of love, and that you have the ability to express it, even though you don´t have a significant other. Express it to yourself, to your friends and family. To a stranger even! If you covet someones sucess, it probably has to to with the fact that this person is expressing what he loves and is good at. So can you. So instead of wasting energy on coveting, put that energy into expressing yourself.

On the mat; are you taking up someone elses space? Are you disturbing someones focus by sounding to much, or bumping into them?
In a conversation; are you talking so much that you don´t let other people say anything?
At work; are you taking credit for ideas that someone else has created?
At home: are you constanly buying new things, wanting a bigger flat, a new car, a better stereo and so on?

More wants more. Learn to distinguish between what is a healthy wish for something that is important for you, something that comes from the heart, and between desperately wanting things that are not sprung from within, but are perhaps a way of filling a gap for something else.