ON COURAGE
What does courage mean to you ?
Why do you think do we need courage ?
copyright Kuriko La JapoMana
Photo by S.B.
Now, here are my thoughts :
What if courage was just another way to show us who we really are ?
What if it was simply another way to remind us of what we are truly capable of ?
Sometimes we judge and blame ourselves for not doing enough, and for not being courageous enough. Wouldn’t that be completely against the original meaning of the word, though ?
Originating from the Latin word cor, it means “heart”. Doesn’t it sound lovely indeed ?
If courage is something coming from the heart, shouldn’t we be more understanding, empathetic and patient with ourselves ?
Or with others ?
What if the timing just wasn’t right for us ?
What if our body and soul know exactly when it’s time for us to take that action ?
What if we just need more time and even more rest in order to take that courageous step ?
How often do we feel bad because we believe we procrastinate (is this even a thing or something created by a result oriented society?)? It usually indicates that we are not ready yet or don’t have enough energy to do so. Which is completely fine!
In fact, taking courageous steps requires quite some energy so we actually do need to rest properly, so that we get to recharge our energy in order to take the next steps we want to and feel ready to take. Everything happens for a reason and we should totally honour our own needs and timing.
Right. This season is not only about taking actions, but also taking rest. It is also about speaking about our truth.
For me, THIS is the time to become even truer to ourselves.
To become our true selves.
Since I have announced my next online class which will happen this Saturday, the 9th April, I have been thinking about this a lot.
In my Transformational Latin Dance class we focus on connecting our body, mind and soul through dancing different Latin rhythms and transforming through meaningful intentions. This time it’s about COURAGE.
Currently in the month of Aries, and only a week ago we had the new moon in Aries with its pure life force energy of initiation: it’s all about becoming our true selves through courageous actions. And in fact I have noticed many people around me are actually receiving this energy and trying to step more and more out of their comfort zone - including myself.
Especially the last 10 days I’ve been feeling a lot this need to step outside of my comfort zone. And by doing so, every time I would feel a tremendous amount of joy and love for myself. I am proud about myself for each and every single step. And more importantly I am super grateful to the place I am currently living - Dominican Republic - for challenging me in so many ways and pushing me to step out of my comfort zone! But this I will share in another future post :)
Something I’ve noticed especially this week was that how often I forgot of all the things I am actually capable of doing. Certainly there are similar things I have done in the past but for some reason I wouldn’t be able to just recall it anymore. Instead of remembering all the proud things and courageous actions I’ve taken before, I would make myself small for nothing and keep talking negatively about how I am not good enough - which is usually our ego mind talking to us because it’s trying to protect us from danger, or our inner critique which has been fed by false believes we’ve been collecting over the past years and decades and maybe even generations. Also we get so caught up with everyday life and challenges that we simply forget about our own capabilities.
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Which is why I would like to share a few things we can do in order to remember better of our own capability :
1. Share your courageous action with your friends or anybody you feel trustworthy sharing! Through sharing we transmit and expand our positive energy and this can be even encouraging and inspiring the people around you. If you feel like you have no close friends or family members around you, you can choose the person who feels the safest in that moment. Interestingly we always attract the right person in the right moment, all we have to do is open our heart and follow our intuition. Even though you might feel completely lonely because you don’t know anybody, somebody will be sent from the universe and you’ll be surprised how you can connect with that person, even though it’s only for that moment. Either way the key is to feel safe to share your vulnerability with that person.
In the end we are all connected ⭐️
2. Celebrate your courageous action ! This can be in form of sharing your experience ( like mentioned in the first point ), but also through rewarding yourself with a little gift (or even a big one, I mean why not ?? ), some little sweets, or with anything you have been kind of holding yourself from doing because you didn’t feel like you deserve it. You could also set the reward before taking your action step as a comforting tool. Imagining who you could talk to after taking that action step just so that you feel like you are not alone or you have somebody to comfort you in case things don’t go the way you wish, is also extremely helpful.
3. Ask your friends, family members, coworkers, neighbours, or anybody you feel safe and trustworthy and somebody who knows you to remind you of what a courageous person you are! It can be as simple as “Can you please remind me of the courageous things I’ve done in my life?” or “Can you tell me how great I am?”. Again, this makes you extremely vulnerable which is POWERFUL - however you want to make sure you are safe around them and you can trust them.
4. Most of the tips are based on human connection, but here is another tip you can do by yourself : Something I learned from my spiritual mentor Cinnamon Rose (I highly recommend working with her if you are somebody who believes in energy, spirituality and astrology!) is to make a “evidence list”. A list of all the things you are proud of doing, no matter how big or small. Grab your journal or make a list on your note app on the phone and keep adding to it. It’s a great tool to reflect and to look back on and as a reminder, especially if you cannot think of anybody who can remind you.
5. Connect with your body! Usually when we get too worried about taking courageous actions, is because we tend to be in our mind instead of our body. Trust me, our body is way smarter than our mind, as it can only take actions and think based on our past experiences and knowledges. Our body though, it KNOWS. Intuition is a big part of it. The more we let go of our negative talks and our ego mind with the false believe that it can protect us - because simply we are never ever protected enough - but get more in tune with our body and trust our intuition, miracles start to happen. Why ? Because the possibilities are limitless! And only our body knows this.. In order to be more connected with our body is for example to meditate, or even more effective breath-work ! If you are interested in working more with breath-work I can recommend you to work with my spiritual, energy and breathwork coach Christine Dominique Bronzel .
6. Size doesn’t matter: It really is not about how big of a deal your courageous step is considered from the society. It can be the smallest thing even for you - celebrate it anyways! Acknowledge it anyways! For example I’m pretty insecure when it comes to things I have never done before and I need usually some mental rehearsals or practice until I take the “real” action lol. And that is completely ok! Know yourself, I can only say. Know yourself and be empathetic with yourself, be understanding. It could be a huge step or a tiny step, courage is courage!
7. Remember remember!
All courageous steps do get rewarded !!!
Caution though, I am not talking about reward in the sense of success and epected results! Noooooo, it’s not this materialistic patriarchic toxic value I’m talking about - it’s even GREATER than that ! It’s a feeling of liberation, freedom, it’s a feeling of love, as if you were invincible, as if you were on top of the world. It may sound cliché but it’s about the journey and not the goal. It’s not about the result but the process. As long as we hold on to the outcome, it will only drag us down because we are not in the present moment. However if we do let go of the result and only focus on the energy we take our courageous actions from - which is an energy coming from within instead of focusing on the outside (searching for the result and recognition is a very outward focusing energy), a place coming from love to ourselves - that’s when the magic happens. And you will be surprised how even better you will feel because you have decided to focus on the experience. Coz that’s what we came here on earth : to experience the beauty of being human beings.
8. Last but not least: practice gratitude! I will make a more detailed post about gratitude, but this is sooo important !!! With gratitude I don’t mean force your ideas to become positive. Acknowledge and accept that right now you are facing a challenging situation and that you want courage to overcome it and be grateful for this experience by simply saying “thank you” without making a big deal of it. Sometimes just by saying the words will already help change your mindset. You’ll be surprised.
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What are your thoughts on courage ?
Write in the comment section down below and please share this blog post with anybody you believe needs to read ❤️
