From The Yoga Boss Vault: Notice Discomfort, Act Anyway
How to Build Your Yoga Business When Fear Shows Up
You have the desire to build a yoga business.
You've dreamed about it. You've thought about leaving your corporate job. You've imagined what it would be like to make six figures teaching what you love.
But here's the problem: Desire isn't enough.
You can't just sit around thinking, feeling, and dreaming about a yoga business. You actually have to take action.
And here's where most yoga teachers get stuck—they notice discomfort, fear, doubt, or overwhelm... and they stop.
Today, I'm going to show you how to notice that discomfort and act anyway.
Because this skill? It's literally the key to building your business.
Why You're Not Taking Action (Even Though You Want To)
If you've got the desire to build a business but find yourself not taking action, there's a simple explanation:
Your primitive brain is running the show.
Your primitive brain has one job: seek pleasure, avoid pain, and be as efficient as possible.
This part of your brain helped us evolve as humans. It's the part that kept us safe in caves, away from tigers, hunting for food. It's always looking to keep you alive.
But here's the problem: This part of your brain is now holding you back.
When you're only concerned with seeking pleasure, you overeat, over-drink, or over-scroll Instagram.
When you're focused on avoiding pain, you hide. You don't put yourself out there. You don't make offers because you're afraid of rejection.
And when you're trying to be efficient, it's really hard to try new things you've never done before.
So while your primitive brain helped you survive, it's now preventing you from thriving.
The Part of Your Brain That Wants to Build
You have another part of your brain—the prefrontal cortex.
This is the part that only humans have. It's the part that helps you create, plan, and dream.
It's the part that said, "Hey, let's build a yoga business."
Here's what you need to do: Override your primitive brain programming and start operating from your prefrontal cortex.
With your prefrontal cortex, you can be with discomfort and still choose to act anyway.
You can feel the fear and put yourself out there. You can feel the doubt and make the offer. You can feel the overwhelm and take the next step.
But here's the thing: Your primitive brain won't go quietly.
It will sound all the alarms. It will tell you that you can't do this. It will send you doubt, worry, fear, overwhelm, confusion, insecurity—literally anything to try to get you to stay safe and stop.
You have to learn the skill of letting your primitive brain sound those alarms while you take action anyway.
You Already Know How to Do This
Here's the good news: If you're a yoga teacher, you already know how to do this. And you teach your students how to do it every single day.
Think about Chair Pose.
When you hold Chair Pose and breathe, sensation arises. Discomfort shows up.
But that sensation doesn't mean you shouldn't do Chair or that you can't do Chair. It's just sensation.
You tell your students all the time: "Notice the sensation in your body. Be with it. Breathe into it. Don't avoid it, don't resist it."
That's how we get stronger.
And over time, Chair Pose—which once brought a lot of sensation—starts to shift. The sensation doesn't stick around forever.
If you can be in Chair Pose and breathe while sensation is there, you can build your business while doubt, fear, and overwhelm are there.
You just have to notice the sensation and act anyway.
How Most People Handle Discomfort (And Why It Doesn't Work)
Growing up, most of us learned three ways to deal with uncomfortable feelings:
- Resist
Fight it. Push it down. Keep it underwater like a beach ball... until one day it explodes. - React
Act out the emotion. Yell when you're mad. Cry endlessly when you're sad. Give the sensation life instead of processing it. - Avoid
Hop on Instagram. Binge Netflix. Turn to food or alcohol. Trade momentary pleasure for whatever you were feeling.
When you notice discomfort come up, what do you tend to do? Resist? React? Avoid?
Maybe you do all three depending on the situation.
Here's the problem: None of these three strategies will build you a business.
These strategies keep your primitive brain in the cave. They keep you safe. They keep you out of harm's way—no chance of rejection, no chance of failure.
But they won't give you a business.
The Skill You Actually Need: Processing Discomfort
What you need to learn is how to process negative emotion or discomfort.
Here's how:
When you feel doubt, overwhelm, confusion, worry—whatever the emotion is—shift into meditation mode.
Pull back and ask yourself:
- What is the sensation I feel in my body?
- Where is it? (Like Chair Pose—is it in your legs, your arms, your core?)
- Is it tight? Is it moving?
Start to watch the sensation from observer mode with curiosity.
When you shift into that curious standpoint—"Okay, I see the sensation. I know it's here"—you pull back. You start to shift into non-attachment.
You're not attached to how you feel. You're not the same as the sensation you're feeling. There's space between you and the emotion.
Processing discomfort—being with it, not resisting, reacting, or avoiding it—is key to building your business.
When you decide to launch your retreat, you'll probably feel some uncomfortable emotion. Doubt. Worry. Fear that no one will purchase.
That's okay.
Feel the sensation. Notice what it's like in your body. Be with it. Observe it. Get curious about it.
And then act anyway.
Massive Action vs. Passive Action
Here's the final piece: You need to get really clear on what kind of action you're taking.
When you ask yourself, "What's the next step I can take today to move the needle forward?" you want to make sure it's action that actually produces revenue—students, clients, bookings.
This is what I call massive action.
A lot of yoga teachers will notice discomfort, get that first part down, and then think: "Okay, what action can I take today? Oh, I know—I'll write a new sequence. I'll change my playlist. I'll study anatomy."
While those actions are amazing and fun, they don't actually move the needle forward.
They don't make you money. They don't grow your business.
They make you feel productive, but the end result of changing your sequence is just some words rearranged on a piece of paper.
This is passive action.
It feels productive but doesn't give you the result of growing your business.
Massive action looks like:
- Posting on social media about your offer
- Writing a blog post that attracts your ideal client
- Recording a video
- Meeting someone new at a networking event
- Telling someone you offer privates
- Making an offer
There's a time and place for passive action—learning, studying, taking trainings. But what I see happen so often is yoga teachers will get their 200-hour certification and say, "I want to grow a business. So I'll go get my 500-hour certification."
I know this because it's exactly what I did.
The 500-hour certification was amazing. I learned, I grew, I became a better teacher.
But it didn't build my business at all.
So notice when your brain says, "The next thing I should do is study, learn, read, create, or listen to a podcast."
Instead, ask: What is the massive action I can take? What is the next small step I can take, even when I feel uncomfortable?
Your Actions Create Your Results
Remember: Your actions give you your results.
What you do and what you don't do is truly going to create your result—how much money you make, whether you book your retreat or not.
Your actions matter.
So here's what I want you to do today:
Ask yourself: What is the next small step I can do to move the needle forward and build my business today?
When your brain comes up with something, know that's coming from your prefrontal cortex—the part that thinks and plans.
And your primitive brain will freak out: "I can't do that. That's scary. What if I fail? What if I get rejected?"
That's okay.
Let your primitive brain freak out. Pull back. Shift into observer mode. Everything's okay. You're not being chased by a tiger. This isn't life or death.
Let your primitive brain pause.
And take action anyway.
Want to learn more about building your yoga business?
Work with Jackie Murphy
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https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/3-marketing-mistakes - Learn more about The Studio CEO Program: https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/studioceo
