• Home
  • About Us
    • Yoga Nook Podcasts
    • Our Teachers
    • New Students
    • FAQs
    • Testimonials
  • Classes
    • Our Classes
    • Beginners – Level 1
    • Intermediate – Level 2
    • Teacher Training
    • Intensives
    • Private Class
    • Terms and Fees
  • Timetable
    • Class Timetable
    • Holiday Timetable
  • Retreats
    • Queensland Retreat
    • Hunter Valley Retreat
    • Testimonials
  • Yoga
    • Yoga Philosophy
    • Yoga Nook DVD
    • Yoga Poses Gallery
    • Yoga Resources
  • Noticeboard
    • News
    • Events
  • Blog
    • Podcasts
  • Contact
    • Our Location
  • February 20, 2019

The Yoga Nook

Iyengar Yoga in Dulwich Hill

  • Book Retreat
  • Book Classes
    • Beginner Class – Level 1
    • Intermediate – Level 2
    • Casual and Offers
  • Cart
  • My Account
  • 0 items$0.00
You are here: Home / Blog / Overcoming fear and doubt with yoga practice

Overcoming fear and doubt with yoga practice

April 6, 2018 By Linda Apps Leave a Comment

I was watching Mr Bean the other night with my son Luke. Mr Bean climbs to the top of a very tall diving tower and then loses his nerve. It’s so funny to watch him clinging to the ground and squirming around as he does whatever he can to avoid going over the edge. At this point I think it’s fair to say he’s immobilised by fear and doubt.

Perhaps, if we could have convinced him to do a backbend, he may have been able to gather himself together and swan dive off the edge with aplomb.

Fear and doubt can be immobilising, but as we know from doing backbends (for example), the fear of the upcoming pose is often worse than the reality. The thought of having to do a backbend can be much heavier than the actual experience.

It’s our mind that gets in the way.

As Mr Iyengar says:

“You cannot hope to experience inner peace or freedom without understanding the workings of your mind and of human consciousness in general. All behaviour, both constructive and destructive, is dependent on our thoughts. By understanding how our thinking works, we discover nothing less than the very secrets of human psychology. With this right perception and understanding of our minds, the door opens to our liberation, as we go through the veil of illusion into the bright day of clarity and wisdom. The study of mind and consciousness, therefore, lies at the heart of yoga.” BKS Iyengar, Light On Life p.107

A Practical Tool

Yoga is a practical tool to help us meet the challenges of everyday life. Cultivating a practice helps us begin to understand how our own mind works and overcome our patterns and tendencies. It helps to remember these tendencies are simply human responses to life that everyone shares.

Tapas can help us get to a place where “old patterns are not repeated; new things truly can happen, and real changes can in fact take place”. 

Mr Iyengar translates ‘tapas’ as sustained courageous practice – to get “more of what I genuinely desire and less of what I don’t”.

As he says, “the trick is to recognise which is which and then act on it. The paradox arises in that to train ourselves to achieve this, we have to start by doing a fair bit of what we don’t want to do, and rather less of what we think we do.”

As in getting up every morning and doing some practice, rather than sleeping in!  

Beginning a yoga practice develops our understanding and discovery of ourselves and of human psychology in general. What stops us, what gets in our way, what habits of mind do we have, what are our patterns? And slowly, if we stick with it, we develop the tools to move ourselves along and come into our full flowering.

Facebook Practice Group

At The Yoga Nook we want to support you in not only coming to classes, but also in establishing your own home practice. Any practice you can do at home will support your work in the classes.

Over the 16 years The Yoga Nook has been operating (thanks for your support!) I have tried many ways to encourage people to practice. Led practices, personal practice intensives and retreats have all helped, but as much as I’m loathe to mention Facebook, the practice group we’ve established there has been the most successful in terms of keeping people practising long enough for them to start seeing the results. Once things become easier to do, enthusiasm and excitement for the practice grows. It can be like a plane taking off – it takes a lot of energy at the start but once you’re airborne you can cruise along and enjoy the view, and when you hit turbulence you’ll have some tools to cope with it.

The Yoga Nook Practice Group is one year old this Sunday April 8 and we’re celebrating by starting a new 15 minutes a day for 30 days practice challenge. Warning – this can be very addictive and some people have kept going all year! They’re ready and waiting to support newcomers to the group. Just look for the The Yoga Nook Practice Group on Facebook and apply to join. It’s completely free and we’ll be posting practice suggestions, tips and encouragements over the 30 days. 

So dive in – support yourself to go for more of what you really want!

Filed Under: Blog

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Podcasts

  • Peter Thomson: there is a method, and an order, in the asana that needs to be respected.
  • Pixie Lillas: Always go out the door with some Yoga behind you

Yoga Nook Podcasts

Yoga Nook Podcast

Meditations on Life Health and Yoga.

Subscribe Here

Our Teachers

All classes are taken by skilled and dedicated Iyengar Yoga practitioners Linda Apps, Thomasin Litchfield and Erik Berger.

Iyengar Yoga Certified
yoga certified Meet our Teachers

Practice Sheets

These practise sheets are for use with The Beginners Guide to Yoga DVD.

Active Practice - 15 Minutes
Join Our Class - 1 hour 10 Minutes
Restorative Practice - 15-30 Minutes

Frequently Ask Questions

Thinking of starting Yoga this year ? Wondering what a class at the Yoga Nook involves ? Look up our Frequently Asked Questions page to find out more before you start on your new yoga path for 2018.

Latest Tweets

  • Imagine a confident Australia without the self-doubt... https://t.co/7wzQAz4bKq February 16, 2019 3:29 am
  • Now to convince my 13 year old... https://t.co/urSXggKPL4 February 16, 2019 3:10 am

Useful Links

  • Yoga Nook DVD
  • New Students
  • Beginners – Level 1
  • Intermediate – Level 2
  • Intensives
  • Retreats

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates
from the Yoga Nook.

© The Yoga Nook 2018 · The Yoga Nook, Marrickville Road, Dulwich Hill, NSW 2204 · theme by StudioPress · built by Define Media · Log in