Today Charly and I talked to Jacqueline Wales from http://www.thefearlessfactor.com
Jacqueline has an amazing history and achieved many things in her life that she would have never dreamt of. She is an inspiration to listen to.

The “Fearless Factor” is all about going beyond fear. Fear is based in our imagination (unless it is a real life threatening situation). Our imagination goes into overdrive and into a very negative mode. Our only reality is here and now (which is also one of the very basic yoga principles). We have no idea what will happen, we can’t possibly know.

We can project into the future in a positive way by saying to ourselves something like: “If I have it my way, this will happen…” This way, we have much more chance of achieving a  positive outcome. We can incorporate positive statements into our meditations and visualisations. We can specifically create a meditation for ourselves that helps us overcome our fears. Including simple sentences like “I am safe”, “I am ok”, ”I am protected”, “Mother Earth is supporting me” will go a long way to calm our mind and put our fears into perspective.

We need to question all our beliefs once we are adults because all of us live with somebody else’s beliefs and fears in our minds. How many fears were instilled in you when you were little?

Fear is like an abyss, we need to work out how to get to the other side and the only way is to jump – it is not as far as you think it is. Fear can also be defined as the “inability to trust”. This could be not trusting ourselves or others. On the other side of fear is love, especially loving yourself, and the firm belief that anything is possible.

Being fearless is not the absence of fear but the ability to get to the “other side”. How to overcome fear? Start acting “as if” or like some of my mentors have put it: “Fake it till you make it”.

Fear has 5 elements:
• Loss
• Abandonment
• Rejection
• Humiliation
• Failure or success

When we have fear one or many of these 5 elements above are activated. All these elements interrelate. To manage the fear of failure just redefine failure as something that “didn’t work”. You simply did not have enough information or you did not have the right information. Whoever or whatever caused this to be so is irrelevant. Don’t dwell on it, just move on to the next thing. “Next” is one of Jacquelines favourite words. During relaxation practice letting go of thoughts, fellings, fears – just see them dissipate into the distance, dissolve, disappear. The fear returns, just exhale it again and watch it dissolve in the distance.

One practical hint from Jacqueline on how to overcome your fears:
Carry palm cards with you whereever you go and write down any negative thought or fear that comes to mind as soon as it does. Then turn the card around and write the opposite thought on the back.
This is a great tool as it graphically reminds you every time you have self sabotaging thoughts and you have an opportunity to turn them around.

To listen to the full interview, click here:

Jacqueline left us with one parting thought: “Remember that fear is an option”.

Till next time,

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Recently I came across a study that assessed the benefits of Yoga for women diagnosed with breast cancer and receiving conventional treatment. The main focus of the study was on “Anxiety”, the reason being that anxiety experienced after diagnosis and during treatment causes various problems and the overall outcome of the treatment is not as good. Here are a couple of quotes from the study:

“Earlier studies have shown that anxiety increases psychological distress and side effects following conventional treatment. This treatment-related distress is predictive of poorer treatment outcome, poor treatment compliance,
greater pain, longer hospital stays, more postoperative complications and immune suppression.”

“Therefore, there is a need to reduce anxiety in these patients.
The literature on psychosocial treatment for breast cancer patients provides uniform evidence for an improvement in mood, coping, adjustment, vigour, and decrease in distressful symptoms using a variety of behavioural approaches including alternative medicine approaches such as yoga.

Yoga as a complementary and mind body therapy is being practiced increasingly across the world. It is an ancient Indian science that has been used for therapeutic benefit in numerous health care concerns in which mental
stress was believed to play a role. This could be particularly useful in cancer patients who perceive cancer as a threat. ”

In other words, it is crucial to reduce stress and anxiety when confronted with a diagnosis like breast cancer. Yoga is one of the methods that can help to achieve better outcomes.

The reference for the study is:

Anxiolytic effects of a yoga program in early breast
cancer patients undergoing conventional treatment:
A randomized controlled trial
M. Raghavendra Rao, Nagarathna Raghuram, H.R. Nagendra,
K.S. Gopinath, B.S. Srinath, Ravi B. Diwakar, Shekar Patil,
S. Ramesh Bilimagga, Nalini Rao, S. Varambally
Departments of CAM, Surgical Oncology, Medical Oncology and Radiation Oncology,
Bangalore Institute of Oncology, Bangalore, India
Department of Yoga Research, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bangalore, India
Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore, India

and you can find it at:

http://www.sciencedirect.com

Till next time,

Connie,

Your Yoga Partner,

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com