Courage Today

Do you have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition? Are you stalled out because of your fears and limiting beliefs? These are tough questions that demand deep reflection because if you really want to change, you have to have the courage to see yourself as you truly are and be willing to act in spite of your fears and frustrations. When I first ran into the wall of self observation I fiercely fought against what was being shown that I didn’t want to see.The truth of who I thought I was contrasted with what I was acting out. I had to die to what I thought was me.

We’re living in a cycle of time when one age is dying while another is being born. To live in this age of ‘in between’ requires courage and commitment to observe who we truly are and are not. A choice confronts each of us as we feel our foundations shaking. Will we surrender our chance to participate in the creation of a new future or will we surrender our illusions of who we think we are for a new awareness of who we truly are to create something new? To see ourselves as loving and caring while others see us as selfish and demanding is a significant challenge.

Courage is the ability to live with uncertainty, to step into the unknown forest of life where there are no well-worn paths and from which few return to guide us. To live into the future means moving into this unknown, embracing change and expressing our own original ideas and sensibilities. It means listening to your inner emotional guidance system which requires a deep inner centeredness and connection to the Source and to your Authentic Self. It can be a solitary and lonely trek in which you will experience both failure and success. It’s a heroic journey.

On the map of the scale of consciousness formulated by David R. Hawkins and found in his ground breaking book, Power vs. Force, courage is the foundational step that gives reality to all other positive virtues and personal values. It’s the platform from which all higher levels of consciousness are built. It’s an assertion of the Infinite Self and the call to the psycho-spiritual ascent necessary to become fully human. Courage to be who we truly are leads us to trust, optimism, acceptance, understanding, wisdom, love, joy, peace and enlightenment.

The acorn becomes an oak tree through it’s built in entelechy. The puppy becomes a dog through the same process; no courage is necessary. Humans however become fully human through choice, courage and commitment to ongoing learning and growth. Dignity and delight come from these daily decisions. Challenging our cultural conditioning, much of which stifles and blocks our unfolding consciousness, requires courage. Inner affirmation, strength and insight is needed to engage, transcend and include this awakening. It reveals lots of contrast.

Most of us don’t see things as they are. Rather, we see things as we are and we’re all products of our conditioning. How often do you choose feelings over logic, adventure over security, habit over experimentation, the known over the unknown, other people’s ideas over your own? Do you dare to see with new eyes?  If so, take a deep look into what runs your life and how much your thoughts, words and actions are simply unexamined habits. Rather than dismissing a new or different thought, could you not expand your options to see and hear new possibilities?

We’re all in the same boat here and the boat is sinking. It’s the boat of “It’s all about me.” The  more enlightened truth is that it’s all about us. We’re in this human divine condition together and are called to recognize our differences as gifts to enjoy and celebrate rather than revile and condemn. Years ago when so many of my small town Mid-western values and beliefs were being challenged, I was advised to embrace the contrast rather than resist it. That’s when I learned to move beyond knee jerk reactivity and “Put it on a shelf for further enlightenment.”

This counsel took great courage because at the time it seemed to cut me off from all I thought I knew and held as true. Now I can look back in appreciation while moving forward with greater courage and compassion. It’s a teaching about transcending and including. It’s also a teaching about permitting, feasibility, affirmation, empowerment, courage and new beginnings. To reiterate Winston Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” It’s the courage to live into your Essential Infinite Expanding Self . . .

• Today and everyday muster the courage to monitor your negative emotional reactions to what you disagree with. Allow them to come and let them go. Breathe deeply and experience how it feels to let them come and go. Which feelings bring more inner freedom and happiness?

• When facing a conflict of opinion with another this week, allow the possibility of reconciling or neutralizing the conflict by simply putting it on a shelf for further enlightenment . . .

• Practice being courageous by observing your own thoughts, feelings, words and actions daily. Notice what you affirm, deny or reconcile and the feelings associated with them. Give more attention to the things that make you feel better about yourself and others . . .