FEAR is an emotion induced by a threat perceived by living entities, which causes a change in the brain and organ function. Fear is a natural and necessary part of being alive. Our bodies, from the beginning, have been programmed with a fight or flight response to keep us alive. If we weren’t genetically engineered to protect ourselves from legitimate threats, fear wouldn’t be able to protect you from injury in your yoga practice or tell you to jump out of the way of an oncoming car.

While some fears are necessary for survival, other fears keep us from living a life that we wake up passionate about every morning. Mark Twain said, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” The obstacle that most of us deal with is that we fear too much and let ourselves be consumed by fear, losing our grasp on reality. We let the what-ifs overwhelm us and get in our way.

As Patanjali observed, disrupted breathing, weakness, muscular tension, and restlessness are all symptoms of fear. Physically, fear leaves a chemical residue in our cells and leaves a memory (samskara) in our body. Once we are consumed by fear we lose our ability to think clearly. Fear changes how we perceive the world, how we carry ourselves and how we interact with our world.

Whether its fear of failure, fear of loneliness, fear of judgment, fear of falling, fear of the unknown, fear of spiders, or fear of death our bodies don’t know the difference between our fears when our mind views the threat in the same way.

In our yoga practice we look at how fear shifts us by becoming an observer in the process to start to observe it. When we become aware of our fears, eventually our body will start to release some of that fear from the tissues and we can start to move forward in a new pattern. As yoga practitioners, we have the opportunity to get to the root of our fear and eventually free ourselves to live up to our upmost potential, to make your hearts innermost desires a reality. Come face your fears with courage and kindness to take flight towards your true self at the Wilmington Yoga Center.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” — Marianne Williamson

Join us in a class anytime or face your fears with an inversion workshop with Jess Bichler RYT500 starting October 31st

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