Are you afraid?

My children are deathly afraid of the dark.  This fear makes it very hard to "take care of business" during winter months, when the sun sets earliler than during other times of the year.  Neither of my kids will venture into a room where the lights are not turned on.  If we're out and return after 5pm to a dark home, they won't leave the foyer until the lights to the next room are turned on.  If I commence with cooking dinner, getting busy in the kitchen, and one of them needs to use the bathroom (which is on the second floor), they need me to stop what I'm doing, wash my hands of whatever food I'm preparing, and walk them upstairs.  They won't even agree to walking upstairs, turning on lights as they go.  I must escort them, lest a "Death Eater" (my older son is WAY into Harry Potter) or "Ghost" come and spirit them away.  In the modern age of energy conservation and environmental conscientiousness, it's pretty much ingrained in me that we can't leave lights on unless we are in that room, so I'm pretty much stuck with this station in life.  To be fair, this fear of the dark *does* work itself to my advantage.  If there is a room where I don't want my children to enter and make a mess, I just leave the lights off.  But overall, my life is inconvenienced by my children's fear.
Is fear justified?  As far as my children and the dark are concerned, yes.  This is despite the fact that my husband and I are vigilant about what these boys are exposed to.  Knowing that the 4th Harry Potter novel is far scarier than the first 3, I've been reticent about letting my older son delve in, despite protests that all his friends are reading it.  The boys haven't even seen Finding Nemo, we've sheltered them so much from "scary things".  Can it be conquered?  Ask the 7-and-under set - the answer is No Way.  Mom's help is needed.  But what about us grown ups - you know, those of us for whom "Mom" is no longer at beck-and-call?
When it comes to your yoga practice, what is it that you fear?  Is it something simple, like a challenging posture?  Are you afraid of flying in crow?  Are you fearful that your Ardho Chandrasana is going to land you on your face? 
Maybe you have no idea of what I'm talking about - let's address you neophytes:  are you afraid of trying yoga?  What is holding you back?  The beauty of yoga is that you take away from it what you want (unless what you want is a hard-driving sweaty workout.  Then again, we've got you covered with Bikram!).  There really is nothing to be afraid of.  It's not too girly (in fact, I'd venture to say that there were more men than women in the class I took with Heidy this morning...and the Tuesday night class I've been aiming to catch with Eileen always has at least 3 men who are regulars).  It's not too intense (there are modifications for every single posture).  Remember that it even took God 6 days to make Earth.  You're not going to fly in crow on the first day - you work up to every posture, honoring your body and respecting your intentions with each practice.  You'll get there.  And when you feel like you've "arrived", you realize that there's somewhere else to go with the posture.  Your practice is never finished. 
So maybe that's what you're afraid of - the fact that there is no "end" to yoga.  There's always somewhere else to take your practice.  When you think about it, that's nothing to be afraid of.  It's exciting that your relationship with Yoga is not going to reach a "dead end".  There's room for improvement, room for growth.  The longer you spend growing your practice, the more you appreciate it, and not that other's opinions should matter, you'll have more respect. 
In a practice last month, towards the end of the hour, the teacher guided us into crow.  I was game to try, knowing that I wasn't strong enough to hold the posture (which is a rather intense arm balance that also incorporates abdominal strength).  There were two women on mats behind me that scoffed at the thought: "Oh, there's no way...", but as I attempted the balance: "Oh, look, she might have it...oh, she doesn't...wait, maybe she's got it...ooops, nah".  Why weren't these women focused on their own practice?  Why weren't they attempting to conquer the pose?  The answers don't matter.  They were fearful of something, and they let their fears get in the way of trying.  And this, in turn, got them nowhere. 
So, the lesson to be learned here is to put things into perspective.  My kids need to put it into perspective that the dark is simply the absence of light.  The same things that are there in the light are there in the dark.  Conquering this (hopefully) will come with age.  Right now, they haven't much life experience, so the fear of the dark is understandable.  As we gain more experiences, we realize that certain aspects of life are left in the proverbial "dark" - there are things we can't see or understand.  Maybe we're not meant to understand them, maybe we need patience to deal with them.  Either way, give them time and patience, and the light may be turned on, hopefully conquering our fear.  Treat your yoga practice with the same perspective, and one by one, each posture will come to you.  It will be like turning on each light as you go upstairs to the second floor.