I happened to touch on the concepts of fear and courage in my teachings this past weekend. At one moment I heard myself give a completely useless, and quite silly, encouragement. I literally said: don't be afraid. Which is never helpful and it wasn't what I meant to convey. I immediately pointed this out to my students, and continued by encouraging them to open up and possibly find a deeper level of ease, despite the fear. This then led me to the notion of courage, as this is what I believe courage to be. To continue with whatever we need to do, being fully aware of the fear.
Courage is needed in many different situations in life if we want to live authentically and be true to our heart. Sometimes it entails making necessary changes that will bring great and important benefits to us. But these changes are often fear inducing, and if we don't find the courage we might never implement them.
I saw an article not that long ago that pointed out how self-care is not only having a massage, taking a walk or relaxing in a bubble bath. All that is definitely self-care, but so is changing jobs, moving, going back to school, letting go of people who do not bring love or light to your life anymore etc.
We practice moving through fear on the yoga mat, so that when we need it in life, for those important self-care changes, we can find it within us. We feel the fear, but we still put one foot in front of the other.
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear,
but the triumph over it.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,
but he who conquers that fear."
Nelson Mandela
