Urszula Masny-Latos has been terrified of heights her entire life. Yet three times a week, she twists and flips her body around a large metal hoop suspended nearly 5 feet in the air. “Just the idea of being upside down, even on the ground in a handstand scared me,” she says.
Ms. Masny-Latos is the 60-year-old executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. In mid-2013, bored with her gym routine, she decided to face her fear and joined a friend for an aerial class at Esh Circus Arts in Somerville,...