SOMA GET FIT.

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by Nina Bennett

This summer I finally through-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. It had been a dream of mine since my senior year of high school when a young man came to our school and gave a presentation on the various ecosystems he had hiked through while on the trail. I fell in love with the images projected on the gymnasium wall! The idea of sleeping under the stars, walking through mountains ranges from Mexico to Canada, left me exhilarated!

In college I began researching the trail and exactly what the hike would entail. The trail is approximately 2665 miles long and the it takes the average hiker 6 months to complete. This is hiking an average of 20 miles each day. You hike through waterless deserts, snow covered passes, steep mountainsides, ford rivers raging with snowmelt. You may encounter bears, rattlesnakes, and ravenous mosquitoes. You may even experience torrential downpours and blizzards. And then there is the matter of hitchhiking to and from towns in order to resupply. In my mind there were so many unknowns. Each year I would contemplate the adventure, and each year find an excuse or reason why I should put it off another season. Underlying the excuses I was aware of fear.

After 14 years of doing this, I reached a point in my life where the circumstances I found myself in were unbearable. I was bored with everything. Yes, my life was easy and comfortable, but it was not stimulating. There was no growth. I was becoming numb, a zombie going through the motions of life. It was finally time to set my fears aside and at the very least, try.

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As I have grown older and had more experiences, as well as deepened my practice of yoga, I have learned that the best way to move beyond fear and to liberate myself from it’s limitations is to breathe, and slowly, with awareness and patience, take baby steps towards the frightening thing. My teacher Ganga White puts it this way, “Most fear in yoga practice is created by anticipation and by projecting thought forward. In the moment of true danger there is actually no fear, only action or reaction.“ Fear is only a thought. It is the “what ifs” that haunt us. “What if I can’t think if anything to say,? What if I can’t find water?“ Fear is not “what is.” In “what is” there is only action or inaction. Fear is not involved. The trick to overcoming fear is to remain anchored in the moment, to keep an awareness of what is here and now in your present experience. Avoid those ‘what ifs” as they only suck your vital energy and leave you paralyzed. Instead, develop a trust that you can deal with what is here and now!

So I made the decision! I would embark upon the journey, not quite knowing what to expect, but trusting that whatever came up, I would be able to deal with it if I remained rooted in the moment.

The first step, choosing to hike the trail despite the fear and uncertainty that I experienced, was the most difficult of the entire journey. Once I started walking, placing one foot in front of the other, looking around myself in wonder and awe, something wonderful started happening. Hiking the trail was a process that built upon itself. At the start, I did not posses all the skills and knowledge needed to complete the adventure, but as I hiked, I slowly gained what I lacked. I would encounter a person who would teach me something or share a bit of information. There were small physical challenges in the beginning that built strength and endurance for later, larger challenges. I began to trust in “trail magic.” Whatever you needed seemed to come to you at exactly the right moment in time, in ways often unimaginable! Yes I encountered bears and rattlesnakes, but they had no interest in me. They were not the angry, menacing creatures my minds eye had seen pre-hike. I remained cool and calm, aware, and they would make move away from me. Dealing with waterless stretches took some planning, and information from other hikers, but I was not going to die and become a skeleton, bones bleached and brittle in the hot sun and sand!

Throughout the four and a half months I spent hiking, there was not one thing that warranted the paralyzing fear I had experienced in my mind. In fact, the adventure was relatively easy! All the fears I had were blown out of proportion and were mostly illusions and stories that I had constructed in my head. The more creative you are, the bigger and scarier the details you create! Sometimes frightful things do need to be respected and approached with caution and knowledge, but It has been my experience that through facing my fears, I become exhilarated and full of life having moved beyond what was previously a limitation!

In order to help people understand their fears in Ropes Course Work, participants are encouraged to think of their experiences in terms of zones. First, there is the Comfort Zone. That is the state the majority of us operate in the majority of the day. Activities that don’t take much thought, effort or attention; brushing our teeth, driving our cars, listening to music, etc. Then there is the Discovery Zone. This is when we are leaning, discovering, curious, unsure, yet still present and aware. The third is the Panic Zone. This is the zone we are in when we are so overcome by fear that we are no longer present, instead trying to escape. Each person has unique Zones in the various aspects of their life. One person might be very comfortable with physical challenges, but incredibly uncomfortable with social situations.

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In Freedom From The Known, Krishnamurti wisely says, “Now take your own particular form of fear. Look at it. Watch your reactions to it. Can you look at it without any movement of escape, justification, condemnation, or suppression?…Thought, which is always old, because thought is the response of memory and memories are always old— thought creates, in time, the feeling that you are afraid which is not an actual fact. … thought is responsible for fear. Therefore our question now is, is it possible for the mind to live completely, totally, in the present? It is only such a mind that has no fear.“

The idea is to spend time in your Discovery Zone, the present moment. This is the zone in which yoga occurs. There is a union of body, mind and spirit. In this moment exists freedom, curiosity and possibility! I encourage you to step out of your Comfort Zone, face your fears! Once beyond the normal, comfortable, routines, there is potential to experience new things! Remain present within yourself, watch your breath, notice when your heart rate increases. Do not move so quickly that you cross into the Panic Zone without realizing it, causing yourself stress and a quick retreat back to the Comfort Zone. Remain aware of your fears, but present with them, curious about them. The magical thing is that the more you anchor into the moment, you find the fear begin to dissolve, to evaporate, and the world becomes a limitless playground.

Remember, “Fear is a paper tiger. – Amelia Earhart”

Namaste

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