Fear is an involuntary response to physical and emotional danger. If we didn’t feel it, we wouldn’t be able to protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But often times we fear things that are far from “threatening” – mostly from past experiences, cultural norms, what we were taught and how we were raised. A benign fear, like a fear of spiders or a fear of roller-coasters might not affect your life very much, but a fear of failure, fear of what people think or fear of the unknown can really hold you back and can prevent you from achieving your goals and dreams.
The good news is that yoga can help us pinpoint our fears so we are aware of them. Once we are aware of our fears and start to work on them, our body starts to release some of that fear and we can move forward in a new pattern.
This week’s featured classes will help you overcome your fears and find your strength to navigate any obstacle, on the mat and off.
- Explore & Release Fear to Find Your Greatness with Tiffany Cruikshank: In this class we use inversions and arm balances to explore fear in our lives. Most of us don’t realize how much of an impact fear has on our daily lives, the power it has to limit us and our capacity for greatness in our lives. This class also looks at how to release fear from our tissues to open ourselves to our full potential. If you’re working toward a goal in your life this class will help you direct your focus and shed the fear that holds you back. (one block if you have it, not needed)
- Fearlessness Meditation with Harshada Wagner: Fearlessness Meditation. This meditation focuses on clearing the energy of fear from the subtle body and cultivating the attitude of deep fearlessness.
- Fearless Heart Flow with Sianna Sherman: A strong practice of standing poses, arm balances and basic backbends with bahnda and mudra. Multiple variations of Utthita Parsvakonasana to open the hips and shoulders along with variations of Down Dog, Hanumanasana and Eka Pada Rajakapotasana. This flow will energize you, strengthen you and remind you of Durga’s fearless heart power as you keep making the choice of Love in challenging life situations. Optional props: One Blanket, Two Blocks
- Dropping Into the Unknown with Tara Judelle: This class focuses on moving into dropbacks, moving from the bones and the organs in order to learn new cues to move you into the unknown. Includes, Ustrasana, Udhva Danurasana, and Dropbacks.
- Courage & Fear with Steven Espinosa: It takes a lot of courage to do yoga and sometimes asks us to face our fears. An energetic opening warm up leads into a strong continuous Standing Pose Flow. Followed by Inversions with L-Pose or Handstand at the wall including a tutorial demonstration. Continues with Hip/Thigh openers, Back Bends in Salambhasana (Locust), Dhanurasana (Bow) and Seated Spinal Twist. Concludes with brief Savasana.
- Turn Your Fear into Stability with Elena Brower: With this practice we transmute any “heavy” energy – sadness, grief or fear – into grounding stability. Through this sweet flow sequence, with interesting use of the back foot leading into anjaneyasana, even forearm stand, we will address the musculature of your legs and groundedness of your feet in order to transmute what’s weighing us down energetically into a strong and steady foundational energy.
