I carefully lifted out of the pose and spoke up: “Uh, Fran? When I’m doing the pose (camel), I have this feeling in my chest, kind of a scary, tight feeling.”

Fran was adjusting someone across the room. She had a way of looking like a thoughtful seamstress when she made adjustments: an inch let out here, a seam straightened there, and everything would be just right. She might as well have had pins tucked between her lips and a tape measure around her neck. Without missing a beat or looking up she said, “Oh, that’s fear. Try the pose again.”

Fear. I hadn’t even known it was there.

”

— Claire Dederer, Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses