I’ve been thinking about this alot recently. What does courage mean? When are we courageous in taking control of our lives? Is it when we go towards life like warriors? When we stand and roar against the injustices of the world (our own realities)?
Women are so often praised for standing and fighting, for approaching something from a masculine perspective. It’s inculcated in us that when we roar and beat our chests, and take up space, that that is what makes us “brave”.
In recent weeks, I’ve begun to see that this is only one aspect of courage. Yes, leaps of faith and big moves, and massive risks are all courageous things however courage is SO much more than this.
There is courage in facing trauma. There is courage in healing trauma. There is courage in recognising the thought processes and patterns that hold us to ransom. There is courage in breaking these patterns consciously.
There is courage in speaking up for ourselves, our causes, our people, our animals, our issues. Speaking up I’ve learnt does not need to be loud. It does not need to be fraught with angst and emotion and anger. It can merely be a quiet, yet powerful statement made to set an unbreakable boundary. It’s a quiet little moment with ourselves. It’s the admission that we’re not happy, not thriving, not where we want to be – in most cases, the admission is the thing that takes the most courage. Admitting, realising and facing our truth is the most courageous act we can take because it takes a tremendous amount of self awareness and self belief to do it, as well as the willingness to face the emotions and fears that come with it.
It’s courageous to listen to our intuition, even when everyone tells us not to. It’s courageous to make small decisions that are aligned with our energy and the life we want to create instead of following the mould set by others. It’s courageous to let go of things, people, energy, places, relationships, thoughts (whatever you want to insert here) that no longer serve us or support the vision we have for our future and the energy we want to be surrounded by.
It’s courageous to put our health first, our mental health first and prioritise ourselves.
It is also courageous to simply stand and say “I need to rest, because in rest my lessons are integrated and I can find the inner voice I need to guide me to the next phase”. It’s also courageous to say “I need help”. It’s also courageous to say “this decision is scary and yet, I’m going to make it and stick to it”.
Courage is about the small wins. The little steps we take everyday to improve our lives, our energy and outlook. Courage is about being as authentic and honest as possible, in a world that quite simply preaches honesty and authenticity yet is the antithesis of it.