Cultivate Equanimity: Pratipakśa Bhāvanam
Finding Equanimity at the Edge of Fear & Joy
Equanimity is the inner steadiness that holds both joy and fear with calm awareness. It’s the ability to stay centered amidst the swirling changes of life — not detached, but deeply present. In yoga, we practice both it on and off the mat. At Sol Hot Yoga Studio, we practice at the threshold — not denying fear, but meeting it with breath and awareness — not to hide in blissful ignorance, but to explore our full limits.
“Fear is the natural reaction to moving closer to truth.” — Pema Chödrön
And yet — the opposite is also true. Our soul resonates when we draw closer to truth. There’s a trembling and a remembering. The ego may resist, but the Self exhales.
In this paradox lives the wisdom of equanimity: the yogic capacity to hold both fear and freedom without attachment. As Eckhart Tolle reminds us:
“If uncertainty is unacceptable, it turns into fear. If it is acceptable, it turns into aliveness, alertness, creativity.”
What if fear isn’t the end of the road, but a signpost pointing to expansion?
The ancient yogic teaching of Pratipaksha Bhāvanam becomes a compass. From Yoga Sūtra 2.33: When disturbed by negative thoughts, cultivate the opposite. Rather than resist fear, meet it with presence. Rather than tighten around doubt, we breathe into spaciousness. Fear arises in the open field beyond what our mind can understand or predict. In this space your courage can emerge.
Fear shows up when:
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You waver in a balancing posture and feel the vulnerability of being seen.
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You’re returning to practice after injury or burnout and don’t yet trust your body.
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You resist stillness, afraid of what might rise in silence.
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You feel separate in a group class, unsure where you belong.
Fear waits at the boundaries of our physical identify.
Loving-awareness resonates when:
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You discover peace in the stillness between postures and your nervous system resets.
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You rest in final Savasana and your breath finds its natural rhythm.
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You remember your strength — not in performance, but in presence.
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You make genuine friends at Sol, and realize you’re not alone — you’re supported.
Our souls sing the song of loving-awareness.
The closer we move to this truth — intellectually, viscerally, spiritually — the more we begin to remember who we truly are. Facing life’s challenges with a perspective of equanimity may feel uncomfortable. And, in that discomfort, call on your most divine qualities to emerge to the rhythm of your heart. Set a clear intention. The first step may be the most challenging — that voluntary vulnerability. That step takes true courage. Have no doubt, that courage emerges from a place of loving awareness within you.
Fear can be over-whelming — tipping the scales out of balance. One of the signs is Expectation-Guided Otherness (E.G.O.). When we allow our memories to form artificial Expectations. Then, those Expectations consciously or unconsciously guide our decisions. Those decisions can reinforce a misperception of Otherness — that we are separate & divided. EGO wants to trap us in that algorithm as a means of self-defense — preserving a sense of self that is falsely identified with fear.
Making the unconscious conscious is the first step.
This is the balance of equanimity: not choosing sides, but choosing presence — the presence to realize our true nature. Embracing the fear because you know your courage will emerge. Cultivating equanimity means giving yourself the presence of space for that quality to emerge. This begins with the simple awareness of each breath: breathing in, I know I am breathing in; breathing out, I know I am breathing out. Meeting each cycle with the loving-awareness that we are alive.
“When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.” – Eckhart Tolle
At Sol, presence becomes peace. And peace becomes friendship. In the stillness between inhale and exhale, space is created. And in that space, infinite possibilities emerge. In this way, your Practice cultivates the opposite of fear — not by ignoring it, but by naming it. When disturbed by negative thoughts, cultivate the opposite. When we identify the fear as our proximity to truth, we can reach out to the other side. We possess the agency of choice In those moments we glimpse fear, we choose to cultivate loving-awareness.
Today, Memorial Day, we pause to Honor the Fallen.
Excerpts from “A Psalm of Life” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul...Be a hero in the strife!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!
It’s impossible to give a precise figure for the total number of Americans who have died throughout history. However, in the major wars of our Nation, the Civil War claimed the most lives.
- Civil War: 620,000 estimated deaths.
- World War II: 405,399 U.S. military deaths.
- World War I: 116,516 U.S. military deaths.
- Vietnam War: 58,220 U.S. military deaths.
- Korean War: 36,574 U.S. military deaths
- Revolutionary War: 25,000 estimated deaths.
- Operation Iraqi Freedom: 4,431 (2003-2010, primarily in Iraq)
- Operation Enduring Freedom: 2,354 (2001-2014, primarily in Afghanistan)
- Suicide: 140,000 veterans have died by suicide since 2001; of those, 30,177 had served in the military after 9/11/2001. The remaining 109,823 had served prior to 9/11.
There is a problem. Pause to reflect on the sum total: 1,408,494. In minutes, that’s 23,475 hours. In hours, that’s 58,687 days and 6 hours. In years, that’s 3,858 years, 10 months, and 20 days. In seconds, that’s 391 hours and 15 minutes.
Whatever the metric, set your intention to cultivate the opposite. Commit one class to cultivate loving-awareness. Commit to be willingly vulnerable, to show up, to expand your edges, and to allow the divine qualities in you to emerge.
Reverse fear’s algorithm. You are never lacking. Your loving-awareness is more than enough.
Let’s pause together & share a few moments today to practice poetry in motion!
J. Glenn Gray remarked of Warriors, “They may fall, but they do not die, for that which is real in them lives on in those they leave behind.”
Let your practice be a sacred ritual of service to those who have gone before, those who remain, and to all those who will follow. Cultivate peace in all you do.
