I did a 1 hr 35 min Power Vinyasa & Yin Yoga class this morning. The room was packed there were over 50 people there. We began in straddle pose (a wide split) and held it for 10 minutes. Honestly it only felt like 3 minutes, the instructor talked the whole time and made it pass by quickly. It was a struggle to hold the pose for that long without being warmed up first, but I guess I learned some patience because I had to just breathe through it and deal with the discomfort.

Then the fun stuff began. We started going through some sun salutations. The pace was fast and I was dripped sweat pretty quickly. At first my mind was like “What the hell is this? Why am I being tortured? I can’t do this. Lets take a break! Child’s pose! Chiiiiiilds pooooose,” but I resisted and kept moving. Eventually my brain realized my body was just fine and didn’t need a rest. And my body was fine.

Yes, my shoulders burned in long holds of down dog. Yes my arms almost gave out when we did a bunch of chataranga push ups. Yes doing 20 hi-lo boats (v sits) was hard. Yes my legs shook when we did standing split. Yes I had ridiculous amounts of sweat dripping in my eyes and my heart was racing, but I got through it fine. All of this stuff my mind was resistant to at first but my body could do it. Once I realized that the practice was so much better. I just went through the movements and focused on my breath and all those doubts went away.

Don’t let your mind and your fear hold you back. We are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. How much more would we all accomplish if we didn’t let fear control us? How many of us almost let fear stop us from trying new things like Zumba, Hot Yoga, stepping into the weights room, running outside in public, joining a new gym, etc? Don’t let your doubts and fears control you. We are so much stronger, smarter, more talented, and more beautiful than we think. We can do anything.