How to jump into the unknown without fear?

Meditating with a broken ACL, GOA, India, May 2013.

There is a common motivational phrase that says: “Every day, do something that scares you”

This phrase might be tempting for some type of characters, for others can be triggering.  Although some people enjoy scary situations (movies, games, jokes, etc.) the truth is that fear is not desired. Fear can  paralyze us to do things in life or to move forward, fear can make us stay away from those who we love or love us, fear can make us doubt to take decisions from our heart.

To manage fear depend on many factors of our whole existence: our ancestors experiences,  womb experiences, life experiences, our personality, our behavior, the environment and people we have been living in, but most of all, how we train our mind to observe and understand fear.

One of the greatest effects of a discipline in gymnastics, martial arts, yoga and meditation (to name some) is learning how to manage our emotions, thus fear. [1]

The feeling of fear activates our amygdalae, what some are calling now “our reptilian brain” and depending on the context, our cortisol hormones increase provoking anxiety that can be expressed in a certain paralysis or extreme excitement. The longer the emotion stays in the body, the more our nervous system can be affected. It is our red signal to protect, fight or fly!
Learning and practicing breathing techniques, Pranayama, we can train the body and mind to deal with those stressful situations. A daily and long term discipline in Ashtanga yoga practice  for example, helps us to use breathing and movement and grow daily in a gradual way into challenging poses so that we balance those emotions that trigger our unconscious mind. The difference between other practices that work only in the strength and control of the body is that in a daily ashtanga yoga practice there is an interesting process of self knowledge and self transformation.

The beauty of this practices is that through discipline and consistency, challenges become a normal duty and part of the daily life. The body and mind are cleaner, grounded, steadier, stronger and flexible, and the effects in a long term practice start working in the subtle body and consciousness. It's even fun to go through them. We learn to breath better, to do not over react in certain circumstances, to enjoy the process and enjoy every time we understand something and to get ready for the new challenge. Instead of fear, the body and mind learn to relax while the situation is manifesting.
 
Mastering poses in yoga is not about the physical body, it works in the senses, the emotions, the nervous and endocrine system. The more we clean the physical body, the transformation goes to deepest layers of our unconscious mind.

There are many ways to understand our emotions. I have learned many of them but in term of disciplines yoga and meditation are my favorite ones! Far from trying to control the emotions through a rational scientific way, when we learn to balance our intuition and reason in daily situations we have enter then to a different stage of self and Universe observation. 

As a girl I was scared to face unknown situations, to play risky or challenging games and to be alone in dark places. How would I imagine I will overcome so many challenges and unfamiliar circumstances in life?
​
Today I am 46 and all I can be is grateful and feel blessed for having taken huge risks in this my life. I have lived in 4 different countries, traveled alone in more than 25 countries in the world in the most beautiful and also weird places; traveled in all 30 states of my own country, from big developed cities to the farest villages; from the greatest hotels, to the most dangerous or poor places. Always getting involved into the roots of the country and towns, getting to know their culture, traditions, speaking their language (or at least trying), embracing the differences and keeping friends in most of those places till now. 
​
Observing fear as a teacher allowed me to move from one country to other, to change professions, to “let go” instead of the suffering of attachment, leaving family for three times, marrying a man who I didn’t know but I trusted my and his heart. Jumping into the unknown is not an easy exercise.  I am not suggesting to take it a a game. At the end, the more stable we live, the more relaxed we are. Although that is not the common rule in the human experience. Therefore I am so grateful for this young but serious 15 years in the yoga path which allows me to see and share life other way. 
What I call “the art to jump into the unknown without fear” is to be conscious of the scary moment, to breath gracefully through the process, enjoy it and learn from it for the next one. As any trained muscle, the mind becomes stronger; the fear disappears and we are ready for another challenge. When the mind understands that the situation is just temporary and there is nothing to be afraid of, life becomes fun, entertaining and challenges turn out to be tests for the next challenge. 

Same happens with happiness and sadness, the mind understands to take them as temporary feelings and there is nothing to fear. We learn to 'let go' and “lose” those things we think we have “gained” beacuse they will be gone anyway. To trust the unknown is to be confident that there will be always a way to go through, to have faith in the things we can't see yet.

Dalia Haas


1] Here we won’t develop a description of all of the physical, mental, spiritual effects of this practices.
​

Eka Pada Sirsasana, Tulum, May 2018