Practicing courage
Courage is: feeling afraid, diving in anyway, and transforming.
We feel afraid with the recognition that no one gets out of that part. We feel afraid, understanding that it isn’t “bad” to feel afraid, it’s just part of what comes up. We feel afraid, and actually feel—rather than numbing out.
We dive in, anyway, with the understanding that refusing to live to our full potential simply because fear is coming up is less than we were meant for. The “dive in anyway” is sometimes misunderstood as trying to override your fear—NO, that’s not what we’re talking about.
I don’t want anyone to “Feel the fear and do it anyway” from a place of overriding their fear, which means numbing out. I want people to feel afraid and dive in anyway, because knuckling under to the fear just keeps you stuck.
We transform –because that’s what always happens when we make the choice to be with our fear. Perhaps the transformation is huge, and perhaps it’s only a millimeter or an inch of difference.
Nevertheless, that inch is one more inch of freedom. Every inch is worth it.
The greatest fear? That our magnificence will be blinding.
To let all of that love in, especially when we’ve been living a lifetime with no context, no prior experience for the glory of really letting all of the love in?
–terrifying.
To let all that love in would be vulnerable, a state of complete surrender, and Ego/resistance/wounded inner child finds no safety in surrender.
Truly–what if there were no problem to “fix,” because you were already equipped with everything you ever needed?
What if you lived as though that were true?
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. 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, A Return to Love
I’m sure you’ve read this quote, before.
The question for you now is: What will you do? What action will you take?
The Dalai Lama once said that the most important meditation we can undertake is “Critical thinking, followed by action.”
This is your call to action. It is issued to you directly, and with love. It is issued to you with complete belief in your potential to work with and love all parts of who you are, rather than being an adversary to those parts that are more difficult to be with.
It is your birthright to live in a way that is opened up to all that the world has to offer, and to use your openings to help others to open.
This question can be taken as a cliche, or it can be pondered deeply: What are you waiting for?