$60

One of the aspects I came to love, with time, about Forrest Yoga as it was taught to me by my teacher, International Forrest Yoga Master, and Creator of the Release Into Peace Process, Jessica Unmani King, is that it made me realize that my resistance to being challenged on the yoga mat reflected my resistance to being challenged in life! One of the poses that pushed my buttons was Handstand, Adho Mukha Vrksasana. About 4 years ago I had the opportunity to venture out on my own and open my business; at the same time I was doing a 21-day Forrest Yoga Intensive with Unmani. For 3 weeks while I was going back and forth with making a business decision, my teacher had me go into Handstand in the middle of the room with her assistance and decree, while upside down, my vision for my business! Then she would have me sit on my mat chest lifted, heart open, connect with, verbalize and release all the fears that came up for me: fear of falling, fear of breaking my neck, fear of the unknown... fear of commitment (oh yes!), fear of failure, fear of being judged and criticized if it did not work out, (that's a big one!) fear of being on my own, fear of not being good enough (even bigger!). A funny thing happened though, each time there was a little bit less fear and a little bit more excitement about both the Handstand and the business!... I believe that it is thanks to surrendering to the challenge of the pose on the yoga mat and allowing the fears to come up that I was able to surrender to the challenge of the pose - opening my business - in my life. Fear, the emotion that comes up when we are being challenged beyond our comfort zone, is the primitive feeling that makes us be constantly on our guard and in a self-protecting mode, either physically by holding the breath, holding tension and resistance, emotionally by analyzing, intellectualizing or suppressing feelings, or mentally by creating limiting beliefs, reasons why not. Most of the time we are unconscious of fear.Yoga can be an incredible practice of looking directly at our fears when we are feeling challenged and ultimately releasing them. What my experience has taught me is that to release fear, we need to release the resistance to fear. When we release our resistance to fear, fear unravels. What's left is an insight into our fortitude; what's left is a deep-seated trust, as Erich Schiffmann, author of Yoga, the Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness describes it: "the inner relaxation that accompanies fearlessness."

Laure Carter is a Hatha Yoga teacher Forrest Yoga style and a Release Into Peace facilitator at Off The Grid Yoga in Delray Beach