Yoga - No Fear

Someone said to me last week that they weren't able to do yoga because they were so inflexible that they wouldn't be able to do any of the postures. Of course, my response was that one of the main benefits of yoga is that it will increase your flexibility with regular practice and even starting in the smallest of ways will help.

It did remind me, however, of some of the tall tales I used to tell myself many years ago about why I couldn't start yoga. I used to think that everyone would be bendy and I would look like a tree trunk no matter how hard I tried to bend. I used to think that my belly would get in the way of doing anything and I would just be wasting my time. I used to think that beginning yoga at the age of 43 made me too old - even though logic told me that this was a ridiculous notion.

In the end, all of my objections amounted to nothing but FEAR. Fear of embarrassment, fear of failure, fear of judgement.

At at time in my life when I needed something to get me out of a bout of on-going stress I persevered anyway. (I have been told that I can be quite stubborn!) True, the first few classes made me feel like a plank of wood and I even farted in one class and thought I would die! But I didn't die. I did notice that I felt a bit better about myself and about life in general. Over the eight weeks of my beginners course I found the miraculous happen - I was actually starting to feel good in my body and my stress levels were way down.

A large part of the yoga I was learning involved as much relaxation as physical challenge and I quickly realised that my fears were unfounded.

Fear Number 1 - Embarrassment

No matter how much I felt that I would make a fool of myself, fall over or do postures the wrong way I learned very quickly that because there was always something that I did well or made progress on. Seeing even small amounts of progress meant that I came back to every session determined to make even more progress. As I became more focused on what I could achieve I forgot to care about what others might be thinking and any embarrassment just faded away. A good yoga class is an opportunity to focus on yourself and your postures and enjoy the progress that you can see in every class.

Fear Number 2 - Failure

My yoga teacher Swami Govindananda taught us that yoga is not a competition, that trying is making progress and that there is no way you can fail if you are trying. Sure, your body may not be built to become an elastic pretzel but you can get so much from your practice that you will always feel like you have achieved. A fear of failure resides in most people but in a good yoga class you should feel like everyone in the class is cheering for you to do well because you are wishing everyone else well too.

Fear Number 3 - Judgement

Judgement is a gift humans have been given to enable them to stay safe. Unfortunately, sometimes we over-use this mental muscle and can use it to see others as less than ourselves. In a yoga class it's even easier to judge, if that's how your mind works. However, a good yoga teacher should always ensure and foster an atmosphere of kindness and caring, where postural mistakes are corrected lightly, quietly and with compassion. Having experienced this I have found myself caring for everyone in the room and realising that we all have our own challenges to deal with.

Don't let any fear stop you from at least trying one class. You might find it's not for you, or you don't enjoy the teachers style and that's fine. You can always try another teacher or another type of physical activity. Whatever you decide, I do hope to meet you sometime soon.

Love, Peace, Joy