Fear

My yoga teacher read something about fear to us as we were preparing to sink into savasana (corpose pose) in class on Monday night. Basically, the reading said that you cannot conquer fear - rather you must understand it, embrace it, and work with it as a partner in your endeavors.

Taking this idea a bit further, I have found that my own fears are something to be understood one tiny piece at a time. This is becoming easier for me as I age, I suppose largely because I don't expect such immediate results out of anything. I have simply learned that's not the way it works, that most things that can be accomplished are done in small increments. Perhaps, even, that they are BEST accomplished one little piece at a time.

In my own yoga practice, I have been at various times afraid of headstand, full arm balance, and shoulderstand. One thing that became clear to me early on was that I was afraid of being upside down, of having my buttocks up over my head. This understanding made it dramatically easier to approach inversions in general, and now, they are one of the strongest parts of my practice.

That could be all the wisdom I have in me today. Enjoy! And leave me comments about your own journeys through fear. Namaste.