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There’s a phrase I hear all the time in yoga classes,
in conversations with friends,
and, for many years, inside my own mind:
“I’m not ready… that’s why I haven’t started.”
“When I feel ready, I’ll do it.”
But the uncomfortable human truth is this:
we never feel completely ready
before beginning something new.
Not in yoga.
Not in life.
Not when a posture challenges you,
not when you’re starting a project that matters,
not when you’re moving toward a more honest version of yourself.
The first time never feels comfortable.
Perfect preparation doesn’t exist.
The only real thing is the beginning—messy, imperfect—and it’s enough.
When I started practicing yoga more than six years ago,
I had no idea what I was doing.
My legs shook, my hands couldn’t reach my feet,
balances frustrated me, and I basically hyperventilated through every class.
But with repetition, something shifted.
Tiny changes: a little more stability,
a slightly steadier breath,
movements that started to feel familiar,
a sense of grounding I hadn’t felt before.
Those micro-shifts speak.
They’re proof the body understands long before the mind catches up.
Later, reading Pattabhi Jois, Iyengar and Mark Nepo,
I realized what I had been experiencing:
Confidence doesn’t show up at the beginning. It arrives later.
It’s a result, not a requirement.
It’s born from experience, not imagination.
B.K.S. Iyengar said it clearly:
“Practice consistently, and stability will come.”
Today we know—thanks to research—
that the brain builds the circuits for confidence
while you’re doing the thing, not before.
Andrew Huberman describes it like this:
Action → dopamine → clarity → more action → confidence.
Never the other way around.
It means you have to move first—
even if it’s a tiny step—
so your brain can release dopamine,
the chemical that makes you feel progress and motivation.
That dopamine creates a bit more clarity,
that clarity fuels the next action,
and the accumulation of those small attempts
is what eventually becomes confidence.
It doesn’t work in reverse.
You can’t wait for motivation or confidence
before you start.
Your brain only generates those feelings
after you’ve already taken action.
That’s why imperfect movement
is always better than waiting.
Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset confirms it:
The mind interprets discomfort as a sign of growth—not failure.
Which means something simple:
waiting to “feel ready” isn’t just unhelpful…
it’s biologically impossible.
Your brain can’t give you a sense of readiness
for something you’ve never done.
The only way to feel safe
is to step into the unknown.
When the body feels “danger” (even when there’s none)…
and we face something new—a posture,
a conversation, a decision, a beginning—
the brain triggers the same system it uses for real threats.
That’s why you feel:
– sweaty hands
– short breath
– shaky voice
– the urge to postpone
And it regulates the same way in yoga and in life:
by breathing through what you’re experiencing.
This is why the breath is so powerful:
a longer exhale → lowers adrenaline
a softer rhythm → signals safety
the body calms → the mind believes you
The breath becomes the bridge
between fear and action.
Some postures teach this better than anything.
They confront you.
They reveal your limits and your fears.
For me, Kapotasana is one of those postures.
For those unfamiliar: it’s a deep backbend from the knees,
chest opening forward, arms reaching back
to catch the heels.
It demands strength, openness, mobility, patience, presence—everything at once.
I’ve been working on it for weeks.
And every attempt feels like a list of reasons
to believe I’m “not ready”:
– Not ready for the tension in my back.
– Not ready for the pressure in my throat.
– Not ready for the breath I can’t entirely control.
But something changes when I stop waiting
for that “I’m ready” feeling
and get out of my own way.
When I enter without resisting.
It’s still hard.
My mind still pushes back.
But when I do, I enter more softly,
more steadily, more present.
And inside the posture, breathing, I understood:
Courage doesn’t appear before you start—
it appears while you’re doing it.
Yoga and life work the same way.
We think we need more to begin:
more preparation, more certainty, more signs,
more clarity, more time.
But what we actually need is less:
less doubt, less self-pressure,
less perfection, less postponing.
Pattabhi Jois said it perfectly:
“Do your practice and all is coming.”
Start.
Move.
Let yourself be a beginner.
Everything else organizes itself along the way.
There are many ways to practice this:
– breathe before you decide
– enter without resisting
– repeat even when you’re not good at it
– let it be imperfect
– allow yourself to learn
No one feels ready… but everyone can begin.
The next time your mind says,
“I’ll start when I feel ready…”
Pause.
Breathe.
Remember:
the feeling of readiness doesn’t come before you start—
it comes after.
In yoga, in relationships, in decisions, in projects, in dreams…
Beginnings come before confidence.
Action comes before certainty.
Courage comes before “I can.”
Yoga teachers have said it for years—
and science now confirms it:
When you expose yourself gradually to something uncomfortable,
and breathe through it,
the brain reinterprets the experience as safe.
It removes the “threat,”
but keeps the growth.
Neuroscience calls this regulated exposure.
Yoga calls it abhyasa: steady, consistent practice.
Both describe the same thing:
showing up—even when you don’t feel ready.
Patanjali wrote in the Yoga Sutras:
“Abhyasa and vairagya support everything.”
Consistent practice and not clinging to the outcome.
You do your part,
release the perfectionism,
and let the process unfold.
That’s exactly what happens
in your first class,
in a new project,
in a difficult conversation,
in a dream that scares you.
You arrive with fear.
You breathe.
You repeat.
And slowly, a new kind of confidence appears—
one that feels steady, real.
The body learns before the mind.
One of my favorite things about yoga
is that the body starts to register strength,
stability and calm long before the mind believes it.
Sometimes you still think “I’m not ready”
when your body has been ready for weeks.
Science calls it somatic memory.
Yoga calls it tapas: the inner fire
that sustains effort without burning you.
Both agree on this:
the body holds evidence of your progress
even when the mind is stuck in doubt.
That’s why it’s worth continuing,
even with fear.
Parts of you are already prepared—
even if you can’t see it yet.
Opening my studio felt the same way.
A few months ago, I realized this off the mat.
Opening my own studio has always been a dream,
but I kept finding reasons not to do it:
Responsibilities, fear, uncertainty,
the feeling of being “too young,”
finances, and the classic “I’m not ready.”
But someone reminded me of something important:
If I waited to feel ready
for a step that big,
I never would have taken it.
Sometimes we need someone
to reflect back what we can’t see.
I listened,
I breathed,
and I signed the contracts.
Not because I felt 100% ready—
but because I finally accepted
that the feeling would never come.
And right after taking that step—minutes after—
I felt something I only knew from yoga:
A calm,
a clarity I didn’t have before,
an inner sense of “yes, I can do this.”
Action creates clarity.
Clarity creates confidence.
Confidence creates momentum.
Sometimes we think growth is about feeling safe first.
But growth, in reality,
is learning to move forward
with your heart beating fast,
your breath steady,
and the humility to admit
you are learning as you go.
Yoga has taught me
that beginnings aren’t firm,
that the mind doubts,
that the body shakes,
and that even then,
we can hold ourselves
while something new takes shape.
And maybe that’s the most honest lesson:
you don’t need to feel ready to begin.
You need to begin
to find out what you’re made of.
Trust that the path reveals itself step by step,
just like in practice.
If you’re standing at the edge of a step you want to take,
even if you don’t feel ready…
Here, we practice breathing into the unknown.
We practice discovering what’s already inside you.
Breathe.
Take the step.
Begin.
