aparigraha: every exhale is an exercise in letting go.
aparigraha
non-possessiveness. non-grasping. the practice of letting go.
I don't do much on social media anymore. I found that I quickly became depressed, anxious, depleted, or envious whenever I did. Social media is designed to keep us grasping, to not be satisfied with what we have. We see our friends and family doing all kinds of things that we might want to do; we see all their possessions and compare what they have to what we have. We forget that what we see is one-sided–people post the best of what they have and what they are–and that is not the whole picture.
When we compare ourselves to others, particularly in the artificial world of social media, we often feel that we are lacking. What we lack is not those things, those moments, but our own self-confidence, self-worth, and sense of direction.
Aparigraha is the fifth yama, and is translated as non-possessiveness or non-grasping. As such, it partners well with asteya, non-stealing. In letting go of things that aren't ours, we are also practicing non-possessiveness. Possessiveness occurs throughout our lives, in big and small ways. Like asteya, it comes from a scarcity mindset and the feeling that we are lacking.
The best way I know to practice non-grasping, aparigraha, is to breathe. Every exhale becomes an exercise in letting go.
light your lamp & you light the world —
june and the moondog team