The more often you perform acts of courage, the more familiar you become with it.
We have high expectations of how much of life we and others should “expertly” handle. Maybe we believe that when we are born we come pre-installed with the necessary skills to tackle all of what life throws at us with ease and simplicity that we expect it all to come effortlessly to us and when life does not work out that way, we are quick to either pathologise our responses, victimise ourselves or avoid dealing with life entirely.
Sometimes, because we do not want to see that we do not possess these skills, we assume other behaviours or rationalise situations as courage but it isn't true courage. Like when we say others should know how to make us happy rather than learning to communicate our needs patiently or when we let things go and say we are doing so because we are the bigger person rather than admitting that we are afraid of or lack the knowledge on how to face what or who hurt us.
The faster we run away from being brave, the less brave we become.
Courage is a skill to be learned. During our childhood, it was our primary caregivers’ responsibility to encourage us to be fearless, especially with choices that created room for truth, happiness and peace. The ways and words of encouragement and the risks that we were urged to take contributed to our relationship with fear, failure and change. Now, as adults, we are responsible for how that relationship transforms with age. Do we continue to tow the lines of our childhood lessons or begin the journey towards change which requires us to be bold enough to discard what we know and step into the unknown, prepared to take whatever it brings with grace and an open mind?
If you want to be audacious then engage in little acts of courage such as letting go, forgiveness of yourself and others, taking accountability, self-discipline, and setting and keeping to your boundaries. Permit yourself to change - whether it is your mind, your style, your thoughts or opinions.
Do something courageous this week, my darling companion and let us see how much peace that brings you in the month or later in life.
With love,
A