Dearest Readers,
Today I am leading the Cultivate Your Courage Workshop and I am full of anxiety. The good news is I now have something to teach.
When I took the Sivananda Yoga Teachers’ Training Course I learned a valuable lesson: Don’t teach what you don’t know. Quite simply, that means teach only what you do know. I know fear.
The “Teach What you Know” lesson was driven home to me a couple of years ago when I was first developing Cultivate Your Courage, which at that time was called Walk Through Your Fear (you’d be amazed how many people would rather do the former). After feeling really confident about leading the workshop for the first time I was suddenly seized by debilitating fear.
Who did I think I was? What right did I have to lead this kind of workshop? What were people going to think of me doing something like this? What if I failed miserably?
As I shared all of this with a friend she said, “Celia, don’t you think it’s just a little bit funny that you are going to lead a workshop called Walk Through Your Fear and you are terrified to do it?”
Oh, yeah. I guess it is a little bit funny. Ha-ha.
“Now you can teach what you know,” she continued. “Now you have something to give.”
Boy, was she right. And that’s what I did. I went in there and I said, “I’m absolutely terrified to be here. But I’m here. And I refuse to let the fear win.” This is how we cultivate courage. We walk through the fear.
So here I am with another workshop ahead of me. I’ve now led quite a few and they have all been very successful. The experience is truly powerful for all of us, teacher and student alike. Nevertheless, the fear is back.
It’s not crippling me, this fear. It’s not defeating me. No. On the contrary. It’s giving me something to teach.
Inspiring Message of the Day: I will walk through my fear today knowing that I am cultivating courage by doing so. I will trust that in some strange way the fear is a gift, prodding me to move forward into Trust.
