Over the last few days we have been working with the concept of courage. According to Oxford Dictionary, it is ‘the ability to do something that frightens one’. When you think of someone courageous, you probably associate traits such as strength, confidence, steadiness, trust and self-reliance with that person.
Those things are a useful foundation, yet they don’t always guide us to act courageously. Most of the time, it is not the absence of strength, but the presence of fear that gets in the way.
Through cultivating self-esteem and a brave heart. Often, we spend our lives looking for self-esteem in all the wrong places. Whilst educational or professional achievements, money, good looks and outer validation are nice things to have, they are unhelpful if we’re still being left with an experience of worthlessness on the inside. That is a horrible feeling to have and often the point when we recognise we need to do some work.
True self-worth stems from self-responsibility and from being whole-hearted. From that place, we can cultivate connection and an open, brave heart through which we may find courage.
As I mentioned in most of my classes last and this week, the willingness to show up on our mats again and again, meeting ourselves despite the discomfort of what we might find, is extremely courageous.
The eye-of-the-tiger kind of courage is built on profound trust in our Self and in something much greater than our abilities.
That level of trust and the accompanied relaxed confidence comes from an inner experience. That’s the gift yoga can offer us: It is an opportunity to not only build strength in our physical body and energy system, but also to mature and expand our inner experience.
As we deepen our practice, we may more easily become able to display true acts of courage, which are not limited to, but include the following:
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
—Marianne Williamson
As always, I hope it goes well for you this week. Please get in touch if you have any questions.
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