Week 9 Challenge - Not Stealing the Show

This year I decided to challenge myself to reflect on various Yoga and Buddhist aspects throughout the year. The challenges come from a variety of places including readings in Deborah Adele's Yamas and Niyamas and Thich Nhat Hanh's Heart of the Buddha's Teaching and Happiness.

This week's challenge was to not steal other people's thunder. When I first read about this concept as an interpretation of Asteya (non-stealing), it was a couple years ago. I found it really applicable to my life and have been practicing it since then.

There's a fine line for me between sharing a story to relate (what I feel like I'm doing) and sharing for other reasons. I know that it goes to that need to fix people that sometimes crops up. I feel like I know the best answer for them and need to share it. It's that impulse that draws me to provide unsolicited advice.

When someone else has told their story and I then share my story (of a similar theme), I haven't just related to them. I've taken their story and turned it into mine. And, for me, there are some aspects of my ego driving that moment. A need to be heard. A belief I know the best. The thought that my story is better/more important than theirs. And a need to make it about me. Those aren't conscious thoughts in the moment and they certainly aren't ones I'm proud of, but I feel like those are the instincts at play.

So, I'm working on just listening to someone's story. Not sharing my own. Not trying to solve their problem. Just listening. It's a challenge, but it feels so right when I do it.