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• Be Fearless

  

  What scares you? For some people, it’s heights or public speaking or spiders. Halloween celebrates thrills, chills, and things that go bump in the night. While Halloween tends to be a fun holiday defined by disguising our true identity with make-up and costumes, it echoes how many of us deal with our fears the other three hundred and sixty-four days of the year - hiding behind a mask. Yoga provides a safe space for us to examine our fears and offers tools to become more courageous. The Yoga Sutras state that the fear of death is the biggest fear we face and is the basis for all other fears. In the second pada, Patanjali refers to this concept as abhinivesha. Learning to live in the present moment is a powerful way to stop worrying and being scared of the future. Fear can only exist in relation to what you anticipate happening. Fear doesn’t exist when you are in the moment. Every minute of your day is an opportunity to move from a place of courage or from a position of fear.

• When Fear Has You In Its Grip

  

  Let’s get real about fear. Fear has been on my mind and in my heart. All the ways in which we experience fear, are taught to deal with (or avoid) fear, false expectations around fearlessness, and so much more. I’ve been holding hands with fear a lot lately. Sometimes it’s a firm, solid hand hold, and sometimes it feels like fear is trying to break my fingers and crush my hand. It’s so interesting being a human. I’ve tried so many different things to get rid of fear- avoiding it, seeking it out, making choices based on it or in spite of it, saying a lot of positive affirmations, focusing on love and light, pretending it doesn’t exist- you name it, I’ve tried it.

• Overcoming Fear

  

  Halloween is approaching and many of us will dress up like vampires and ghouls, work to scare people, celebrate the horror genre and watch scary movies. What are you afraid of? Well, besides that scary clown who may or may not be hiding underneath your bed? On a more serious note, have you examined the concept of fear and how it impacts you? Fear is a necessary part of life. If we didn’t have healthy fear of dangerous activities like jumping off cliffs or walking down dark alleys in sketchy neighborhoods, we might get injured or worse. One of the biggest human drives is to protect ourselves from pain and loss, but sometimes we hold ourselves back because we are afraid of being hurt. According to Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutras, the biggest fear we face is the fear of death, referred to as abhinivesha. In theory, all our fears stem from this all-encompassing one.

• Simple Things to Do to Believe In Yourself More

  

  Sometimes in life we get knocked off center. We CAN begin to doubt ourselves and struggle to find ways to trust ourselves, our strengths, beliefs, our knowledge, and our power. We can get knocked off center because of things that came up unexpectedly, or something we tried that didn’t go according to plan. Maybe a harsh word from another or ourselves that allowed self-doubt to creep in. The causes can be endless, but regardless of any cause, any cause of imbalance always rests at home in our mind and our thoughts. It is in the mind where we can hide out in the past or false truths, instead facing the untainted present with clarity and confidence. We can know all of this and yet still feel challenged to find the confidence to give things another try, or step out of our protective barriers. An easy way to restore confidence is to do something you know you do really well.

• 6 Ways Yoga Makes You Braver

  

  "Feel the fear, and do it anyway." - Susan Jeffers Sometimes fear works in our favor and motivates us, however, most of the time things that scare us are based on nothing more than a story of thoughts. However, we have the ability to ignore, quiet, and overcome any fears if we're brave enough to and yoga can help. Sometimes fearful, made up stories of the future can hold us back from experiencing some of the magic that life has to offer. We have to be brave and get out of our comfort zones to take chances, have new experiences and greater satisfaction. It can be easier to stay and feel stuck and safe, instead of choosing to be brave though. For most, the familiar is more comfortable than the unknown, and it's preferable to stay within the boundaries of what you know, instead of diving into unknown possibilities.

• Become the Hero of Your Own Story

  

  The hero in any story never starts out that way. He or she begins as an ordinary human stuck in the doldrums of their circumstance. In The Matrix, Neo is a simple office clerk whose cubicle is barely adorned. In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie Bucket is a poor English schoolboy who works a paper route for a few meager coins to feed his family. In Braveheart, William Wallace is a Scottish countryman with a little farm and a lot of love for a beautiful girl.