On Being Brave
I’m being called to make changes in my life, some of them enormous. I’m no stranger to making big changes but this is, I’ll admit it, making me feel less brave than I’d like to feel. I’m not really ready to share too much about this particular change, it’s in its formative stage so needs some brewing before it’s ready to air but I am looking around me and seeking inspiration to be brave, to step into my own self more fully and to be open to what I find.
I feel inspired by people who are brave and go out into the world to make change, to believe in themselves enough to begin making a wave, no matter how small the start. I love this too as an example to our children of what it means to be brave and to be a true open-hearted warrior. It is so easy to be the opposite, to sit in safety and hide and as parents and teachers if we seek to be inspirational to our children how amazing if we can find some place in our lives to show them bravery and commitment so they too will believe they can be a strong warrior themselves.
In times of finding/questioning/challenging my own bravery, I am often am called to revisit Brenee Brown. If you have ever heard her speak (here’s a link) or read any of her books (names ) you’ll know she is a woman who steps out of her comfort zone and speaks and writes about difficult topics difficult like shame. Her wisdom brings comfort to many but in doing so she bares her soul and often. I so admire her for being brave and for having the courage of her convictions.
Recently I felt blessed to have found and to take part in the Worldwide Womb Blessing. It is an example of how a woman, Miranda Gray began to flourish her own idea; she put the idea and herself out there for her dream to foster more feminine energy into the world. Not only does she see it as personally healing and empowering for women as part of their journey to being their real selves but she also whole-heartedly believes in feminine energy as a way back to world healing, so strongly entrenched in masculine energy as the current world is. Not only did I love the womb blessing experience on a deep and personal level but I loved even more that this started with a woman who was brave enough to begin such an event.
Every week on our Instagram feed we feature an instagrammer we admire. This week we featured @kindstars who as a teacher runs a Kindness Club at her school and promotes kindness on her feed! Speaking up and beginning something like this is a seemingly small act on the world stage but it is powerful at a grassroots level and has the capacity to blossom as the lives that are touched by her initiative will be multiplied many times over!
But if you want to be a living example to your children in being brave, you don’t need to foster a world-wide event, become a world authority, or even begin a local initiative. You can be brave in your own life in so many ways and it starts in knowing your own truth and being brave enough to stand in it. It is what living mindfully fosters, to take the values we identify as our own and then to live our lives by those values.
For me, I want to be brave for myself but I also want to be a great example of bravery for my children. The reality though is they have been far braver than me and I have learned from them that to be brave and live your own life is all there is. They have abandoned unsatisfying lives and careers, moved states and countries and really are an inspiration in bravery for me. Your own children may be living examples of bravery for you or you for them. Whatever or whoever is currently fostering the role of bravery it is an assurance that better lives come when we live as a reflection of ourselves.
