{"id":21942,"date":"2022-03-16T17:09:40","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T15:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/?p=21942"},"modified":"2022-03-16T17:16:52","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T15:16:52","slug":"vivere-senza-paura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/blog\/vivere-senza-paura\/","title":{"rendered":"Live without Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOne day fear knocked on the door. Courage went to open and found no one.<\/em> ” – Martin Luther
\nKing<\/p>\n

Many people find it difficult to admit, even to themselves, that they feel fear; because it would <\/strong>mean admitting that you are not strong enough, but in reality by doing so you become even <\/strong>more vulnerable. On the other side there are people who are scared of practically everything <\/strong>until they become slaves of this terrible demon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cIt is good to die for what you believe in; whoever is afraid dies every day, whoever is not afraid
\ndies only once. ” – Paolo Borsellino<\/em><\/p>\n

Fear can keep you from loving, traveling, having those most wonderful experiences of your life, or
\nit can take your breath away, devour you, or give you bitter regrets.
\nSometimes you throw yourself from the highest peaks of life to prove you are not afraid to the point
\nof getting really hurt. We need to stop lying to ourselves when fear knocks on the door<\/strong>. It is an
\nemotion like any other, made up of physical sensations, thoughts and beliefs. So when facing fear
\nmake sure you have your most powerful weapons with you: kindness, compassion, awareness, <\/strong>love.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you don’t want to live in a world of slavery and injustice, if you are tired of being manipulated in
\nthoughts and choices, if you know that deep down inside you there is something wonderful, start by
\nasking yourself the same questions that you asked yourself together with me in previous articles:
\nwhen and how do you experience it in the body? Where do you feel tense and contracted? What
\nhappens to the breath and the heart? So take note of the thoughts and mental images that accompany
\nfear, befriend fear, and show it not a fake armor of courage, but a shining indestructible armor made
\nof understanding and love.
\nI know it is not easy, sometimes it is essential to have a teacher to guide us or someone by our side
\nwho encourages us to better overcome those difficult moments. If you think about it most of the
\ntime you are alone with yourself and with all the negative and terrifying information and inputs
\ncoming from outside. So it is important to start cleaning by avoiding filling your head with<\/strong>
\nthoughts that take away your energy, otherwise you risk feeling empty and you will not have<\/strong>
\nthe strength to wear your armor.<\/strong> With this I am not suggesting that you eliminate or completely
\nignore the sources of disturbance by pretending that everything is fine, it would be an even more
\ndangerous fake optimism and you would lie to yourself. I am suggesting that you balance your
\nemotions and ensure more space for more functional and aware thoughts, images and actions. Fear<\/strong>
\ncan also be useful if you can understand it and not be dominated. It will show you those<\/strong>
\nweaker parts of you so that you can fortify them. In Odaka Yoga we do not train to fight, we<\/strong>
\ntrain to be “Warriors of Kindness”<\/strong>, you can find many inspiring words to read in the latest book
\npublished by Roberto Milletti and Francesca Cassia so as to always have a teacher at hand who
\nencourages you in moments when being alone is scary. You can use Yoga practice and meditation<\/strong>
\nto hone your skills by developing that mix of strength and awareness that will allow you to<\/strong>
\nmake friends with what disturbs you most until you free yourself from it forever. The most<\/strong>
\ndifficult or fearful positions to reach are also used for this and when you finally manage to<\/strong>
\nperform them with ease, after so much training, you will find that you can do more than you<\/strong>
\nthink if you only want to and that true courage is something that comes only with awareness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before saying goodbye if you like, I have a beautiful Tibetan story to tell you, to leave you with a
\nwonderful image of hope and trust in your mind:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Once upon a time there was a great meditation teacher named Milarepa, who lived about nine hundred
\nyears ago. Milarepa was looking for hidden caves on top of the Himalayas where he could practice
\nmeditation. One day he found a cave inhabited by a group of demons who distracted him from the practice.
\nHe first tried to tame them, but they didn’t give up. He then decided to honor them and to extend compassion to them too: half of them left. Those who remained were welcomed by him with an open heart and invited to return as often as they wished. At this invitation, all the demons left immediately, with the exception of one particularly ferocious. Without any fear for his own body, and with all the love and compassion he was capable of, Milarepa approached the demon and put the head in his jaws as a sign of offering. The demon then disappeared without a trace and never reappeared. Memorize Milarepa’s story well and the next time you find yourself struggling with your inner demons – unpleasant or unacceptable emotions and moods, don’t let yourself be crushed or dominated. Imagine what could happen if instead of fighting them you learned to welcome them and send them away.<\/p>\n

May your every action be guided by pure, sincere, conscious and unconditional Love.<\/strong>
\nWith the hope and prayer that every internal and external war will End for a world and a life <\/strong>of well-being, peace, happiness and harmony.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your very affectionate
\nVivian Mil.
\n– Odaka Yoga Teacher RYT 500
\nInstagram: @ararisko_harmony_yoga_<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOne day fear knocked on the door. Courage went to open and found no one. ” – Martin Luther King Many people find it difficult to admit, even to themselves, that they feel fear; because it would mean admitting that you are not strong enough, but in reality by doing so you become even more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21942"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21950,"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21942\/revisions\/21950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odakayoga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}