The Yoga-Take on Dread

I really like Halloween.  I like decorating for it and I like dressing up.  I do not like being scared so I avoid haunted houses and such, but I have been laughing out loud at the Haunted houses Ellen DeGeneres has been sending her staff into- hilarious!   

Halloween could be looked at as a good time to address fears, because the scary Halloween aspects are all in jest. Better to deal with a fear of ghosts if they are little kids dressed up rather than real ones, right? Last year, my Halloween theme centered on picking up a witch's broom and sweeping away fear.  Today, we are focusing on dread. 

Naturally, we tend to move away from the things that we dread. They could be simple things like 'I dread doing the laundry so I will put it off- I'll walk right past the dryer and pretend I don't see it and also pretend I don't know clothes inside are waiting to be folded.'  What about bigger "dreads"? Changing a job? Releasing a relationship?  Often times, we stay where we are unhappy because the fear of what might be seems scarier. Notice I did not write is scarier; it seems scarier.

Where does dread strike you on the yoga mat? Is it a certain pose? Certain moment? I enjoy svasana so much I dread hearing the words "roll into a fetal position".

Some poses are tricky; some transitions are tricky. But the challenge makes them intriguing. Can you relate your yoga poses to the following quote?

"He was like her favorite type of candy, she realized, a bit sour at first but all sweetness in the long run. Admittedly . . . that tartness was part of the allure all along.” ― Victoria Kahler, Their Friend Scarlet

Are fear and dread the same thing?  Fear refers more to an instinct about a specific thing...one can fear spiders, heights, strangers. Dread seems to be a gut feeling about the future.  'I am dreading the moment we have to move from corpse pose into a fetal position.'  Or 'I am dreading the test tomorrow.' Both fear and dread are like vampires; rather than draining your blood, they drain your energy leaving you feeling powerless.
 
“I have always felt that fear possesses such great power, enough to paralyze and quake an individual. Pondering this, I realized that the source of fear's power comes from within me. So, I ask myself, does that not make me the powerful one?”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year