My journey as a yoga instructor has been instructive for my students, but has been even more instructive for me. I have learned and understood more about human nature and have hopefully become a better person as a result of both doing and teaching yoga. One of the things that yoga has taught me is to overcome fear. Fear can be a terrible thing: it can hold you back from success, result in failed relationships and make you a diffident, under confident person. The philosophy of yoga as a holistic discipline can help us shed our fears.
Don’t let fear control your decisions
When I first decided to set up my own yoga studio, I was apprehensive about it. Would I be a good instructor? Would my students like me? Would I be able to manage running a yoga class? Many doubts plagued me, but with some determination and a plan, I think I managed it!
Then I had to confront those very same doubts and fears the first time I was called upon to conduct a corporate yoga session. But here as well, I overcame my apprehensions because I made up my mind to do it, and also because I worked hard. The important thing here was that I did not let my fears dictate my actions. I think that the self-imposed discipline of doing yoga regularly, striving to improve and progress helped me overcome my fears.
Overcome fear
Sometimes, fear is just a reluctance to move out of our comfort zones; a simple fear of the unknown. A comfort zone is just that – comfortable. However, it holds us back from achieving everything that we are meant to; everything that we are capable of. I have had students who would be reluctant to try a difficult aasan, simply because they have become used to doing some aasans and are comfortable doing them. They either feel that they are incapable of change or are under the impression that change is not really desirable. However, when they make up their mind to become better and to progress in their yogic practice, they often surprise themselves with what they are capable of! There was this middle-aged lady in my class who thought she would never be able to do sirsasan or a head stand. She was scared that she would fall or maybe she was afraid that she would make a fool of herself. Whatever the reasons, it took a lot for her to try doing sirsasan, and when she did try she was amazed that she could do it. After this she gained confidence and was able to make great progress in her yoga practice.
We can all do the same. As we do our yoga, with full commitment and mindfulness, we turn our eye inward into ourselves. We examine our own desires and abilities and the fears that may be holding us back. When we examine the enormity of the world around us, our fears will appear very small and insignificant in the scheme of things. And thus, yoga helps us overcome and banish our fears.