A Chair Yoga Sequence For Every Body

Confront your fears head on. This yoga sequence will help unleash your inner warrior.

- Jivana Heyman

Do you ever find yourself clenching your jaw waiting for something bad to happen? Or waking up in the morning with a sense of dread? Whether they come in small doses or huge heart-stopping moments of panic, these feelings can be traced back to fear, which can be debilitating, producing a gnawing anxiety that sucks the joy out of life.

In my life, one particularly fearful time stands out: leading up to the moment I told my mother I was gay. I was 17 and confused. I’d found myself living a secret life and not sharing it with her. Speaking my truth was a major victory, and it made me understand even more how fear had been ruling my life.

Those of us who are marginalized tend to internalize our oppression, which can manifest as fear. During this time in my life, I was scared of being different and of being excluded from society—tossed out like garbage. Mostly, I feared disappointing my mother. My self-worth was so intimately tied to what she thought of me.

It wasn’t until I began practicing yoga regularly that I recognized I was living in a contstant state of fear, even after coming out to my mother. A mild panic was always boiling just below the surface. Savasana (Corpse Pose) gave it away. I remember getting very quiet, maybe for the first time ever without the help of alcohol or drugs. I jerked awake as if I had fallen asleep too quickly. But I wasn’t asleep. My nervous system was just reacting to its first opportunity to unwind the tension it had been storing up for years—in an effort to protect me. It had saved my life by giving me the quick reflexes I needed to duck when some drunk, homophobic man threw a beer bottle at my head. But it was also killing me slowly with stress and anxiety.