Trepidation - what a great word! It means - a nervous or fearful feeling of uncertain agitation. That is exactly what I was feeling as I walked up the back stairs to the yoga room hidden in the upper floor of the personal training studio. I had been taking these power yoga sessions for a few months, learning a little bit every time as I mastered the previous poses. It was exciting to be learning a new yoga format but certainly a physical challenge as every pose seemed to have a whole set of powerful movements in between it. Tonight I was going to try the whole 90 minute series even though I had only learned two thirds of it.
"I am going to die!", I thought as I climbed up the stairs trying not to make too much noise as my flip flops clapped the bottom of my feet with each step. I started telling myself that I won't know what I am doing and I will be exhausted trying to jump back and forward between every pose. In reality, that was very possible. It turned out that there were only two of us in the class that night. The other woman was visiting from Boston for the holidays. It was the day after Thanksgiving, and everyone else must have been relaxing at home with a turkey hangover. The instructor started the class and called out the poses for us as we dutifully followed along. The we reached the part where I didn't know the rest of the sequence. I listened carefully to the instructor and also peeked at the woman next to me to see what to do. "Just listen to me", he instructed. I laughed as I found myself still trying to peek at the woman next to me who obviously had been through the whole sequence before. The end result? I didn't die. I actually had fun trying the new poses and didn't feel any pressure to perform - just to enjoy.
Talk yourself into the challenge and out of the trepidation. It really isn't going to be as bad as you think. You might even have a really good time.