Overcoming your fears

Carmel S
Carmel S
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

Saturday afternoon we picked up Yoga mats at the mall. We found out Eda is a certified yoga teacher and have been trying to get her to lead class. She hasn’t taught much before.

Yoga Narayana, incarnation of Vishu, from 8th-9th century AD

Since she was hesitant to try again, we first tried the resume appeal — “you can say you’ve taught Yoga in India.” But what ultimately convinced her was repeating the challenge / mantra we got from CSC — while in India, try new things —in our projects, and otherwise.

Eda in turn challenged us in our practice — to concentrate on working through fear. If you don’t practice yoga, you may not know that yoga is a means to control both the body and the mind. Often the intention you set for your practice is as important as the physical exercise — so you can devote your effort and focus your mind on improving some aspect of yourself that is important to you. It can be as simple as being kinder to yourself, or better appreciating what you have.

It was a great class. Minus being attacked by swarming mosquitoes.

We spent the morning walking along upper lake. We were going to go to a museum, but when we got there, we weren’t so interested in the brochure they showed at the entrance. So we went to drink beer at a place overlooking the lake instead.

Upper lake
Upper lake
Upper lake

We then took a tuk-tuk over to New Market, and wandered around the stalls, picked up beer, and I picked up a book in the tiniest book shop with a good selection of english books. At one point the shop keeper cornered me into the tiny aisle at the back of the shop, and my colleagues were worried I wouldn’t get out.

Bangles Shopping

I also tried out my new India look:

Namaste!

Written by

Carmel S

I am a Product Manager at IBM, based in Tel Aviv, Israel. I am in India on a Corporate Service Corps pro-bono consulting assignment.

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