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Fear

"You gain strength, experience, and confidence by every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face . . .you must do the thing you cannot do."
(Eleanor Roosevelt)

I never thought that I could do Yoga. Those awkward and peculiar poses seemed so foreign to to my body. Yet, I knew that it was a practice I should learn, since I knew I was putting so much indirect stress on my body that I was setting myself up for future cardiac events. Heart issues and chest pain all are physical manifestations of fear; fear of letting go, fear of change; squeezing all the joy out of life and resisting the flow of life. Fear easily creeps up in me in subtle ways until it has me in its grip, and I admit I was trapped, until I learned yoga.

Almost a year later, I have discovered the benefit of breathing, the ability to de-clutter my mind, and reward of actually having a "core". I remember my yoga teacher telling us to use our core when we did particular poses. I was totally "coreless", my core mostly mush, I wasn't sure if it truly was responding or if it was just going through the motions. But now, I can say I have a core! I can actually do push-ups, shoulder and head stands, and my flexibility and balance have arrived along with it. Facing fear found my core and strength, and with it came my peace. . .

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