Doubt Happens

Have you ever had the experience of being held back? It’s like a force within that keeps you from progressing forward. The force’s heaviness weighs you down and keeps you from exploring your full potential. Generally speaking, this force equates to doubt. Doubt can be crippling in many ways.

Yoga recognizes the power of doubt and how it can be a barrier to students fully benefiting from the promise of yoga - greater freedom, fulfillment and joy. In fact, in my almost two decades of teaching, I’ve seen doubt sidetrack students how are on the path to tremendous healing and transformation when they fail to practice regularly or even quit yoga. They doubted the practice.

Yoga and tantra offer many techniques to address individuals’ needs. With respect to doubt, this means greater and more affirming energies to subsume those of doubt. Many approaches can be accessed in the Tantra Hatha classes available in my membership program to move you through doubt. Check them out by registering here.

Time and again I’ve seen family members, friends and students holding themselves back from moving forward in their lives because of doubt and uncertainty. This is saddening. Life can feel boring, unjust, and even meaningless when doubt keeps you small.

One of the boons for me in the early days of practicing yoga was moving beyond doubting my body. As a skinny kid, I had body dysmorphia and didn’t like myself. The practice of yoga got me focused on what I can do. I learned the poses and excelled at them. Yoga started to open my eyes to more potential, both on the mat and off.

Since those early years, yoga became front and center in my life. It provided me with gifts that I decided to share with others as a teacher. In particular, the expansive nature of yoga helps people move beyond doubt. Without the pull of doubt, potentiality grows and you can start to dream the bigger picture. With that picture clear the steps to get there unfold. None of this is magic, it’s the output of the work you do as a yoga practitioner.

My journey as a teacher has been rewarding and challenging. A yoga professional needs to also be a business professional. My business prowess does not equal my yoga skills. Along the way, I’ve questioned my capacity to achieve what others teachers have. Doubt was always nipping at my tail.

But I kept going, adapting my approach to meet the needs of students and continue to grow as a teacher. Yoga has not been the financial success I had hoped it would be by now, but I continue to persevere. Working with a marketing team and growing my online presence is the next step in my journey - one that I’ve been yearning for.

Does doubt still creep into my mind? Of course. But I remember Pandit Rajmani Tigunait delivering a lecture at the Himalayan Institute where he mentioned doubt would always be present, regardless of where you are in your journey. His point was to keep doing your practice and to keep focused.

The antidote to doubt is faith. Faith in the power of practice to fuel you forward. Faith in yourself.

In your experience, you may have great ideas that bubble up yet as soon as their excitement peaks the downward spiral of doubt quashes that energy. This can become a pattern keeping you from having and achieving your dreams.

If you struggle with prevailing doubt it may be time to make a shift. I welcome you to reach out to me to discuss how yoga can help you. If you are already practicing but want to fine-tune your practice, I can help with that too.

Feel free to share with me any stories you have about doubt and how you’ve overcome them. I love hearing from you.