Yoga and Fear. The two go hand in hand like the bestest of buddies.

Fear is there with you when you step onto your yoga mat for the very first time.

You wonder if this is going to be something you even like. Or, if you’re going to make a fool of yourself during this first class.

You pray to the gods that the teacher doesn’t single you out in any way.

You just want to blend in and get through this next hour or so.

Fear is also there the first time you put your arms over your head and do what they are calling a “back bend.”

You wonder if the yoga teacher has completely lost their mind.

Back bend? As in what a gymnast or dancer does?

You know your spine does not do that.

But, you try it out any way, peeking at the wall behind you and wondering if your spine is bending at all, your heart hammering in your chest.

And, Fear pops up when you put your tiny hands on your yoga mat and ask them to lift your entire body up in your first Crow Pose.

You’re scared you’re going to fall on your face. Or, worse yet, roll out of it in a dramatic fashion disturbing the whole class. Or, scrape up your nose.

But, WOW does Fear know how to do a number on you when you decide to find your first Headstand, or press up, or walk down the wall into Wheel Pose.

That Fear is thick.

You see the Fear is real. But, what’s it’s telling you is not always the truth.

And, that’s what makes a yoga practice, so very different than other forms of exercise.

Because within a yoga practice you get to become super good friends with your Fear.

You get to know exactly what Fear feels like in your body - that nauseous tickle at the back of your throat, the sound of blood pumping in your ears, the involuntary shake of a body part.

And, you start to identify whether the Fear is there to stop you from doing something stupid and damaging, or whether it’s telling you that if you go through with this that you will change the way you see yourself, what you are capable of, and all of the lies you’ve been super comfortable living with up until now.

The body LOVES where you are right now. It doesn’t want you to change. It gets you through the day on autopilot.

But, if you find out, yoga class after yoga class, that your spine actually does bend? That body of yours is starting to change… and your mind, too.

You are transforming into someone else. The person that believes in and is open to all of their possibilities.

You are thinking new thoughts. And, new thoughts create a completely different chemistry in your body than the old thoughts did.

So, get to know your Fear.

Step on your yoga mat again and again.

Take on new postures, not just once in a while, or at a workshop that one day, but all of the time.

It will open up your entire life. Not only to new postures, or a “deeper” yoga practice.

But, to adventures you have yet to dream and amazing people that will inspire you to be more of who you already are.

I hope to meet you on your yoga mat this week and we can say hello to our Fear together and then bust through the Fear that says, “This is not for you.”

Because that fear is a liar.

Sending you all of the support and “you can do this!” I can…

Big Hugs,
Tori