Do You Consider Yourself Brave?

You are so brave! What exactly does that mean? What is brave? Merriam Webster defines brave as "having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty". Being brave is about feeling uncomfortable but doing it anyway. Being brave is the courage to be vulnerable. Yes, vulnerable. Let me tell you more about it below.

Can you recall the first time someone told you you were brave? Maybe it was your first blood test, maybe it was talking in front of an audience. Whatever it was, it likely didn’t involve a horse and you weren't heading towards the enemy. Often our courage is not linked to epic moments. It is linked to moments when we feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. It is when fear prevents us from doing something. Or feeling something. The moment we allow ourselves to ‘do it’ is when our strength kicks in, our bravery. We are not talking about jumping on a skateboard and searching for the highest ramp or jumping out of a plane. It is great to overcome your fears and doing something you always wanted to do, but that is another conversation that includes risk calculation . What I would like to focus on today is how there are a few ways to move beyond that comfort zone where you start to feel vulnerable.

Consider the outcome

Often we don’t feel brave enough to do something, because the fear of the possible outcome is bigger than if it actually was happening. Try to think of the worst case scenario, and then consider how bad that outcome would be in real life. Take little steps forward, take a moment to feel what your body is telling you, take on small parts of fear. This is one way to grow your strength and courage.

Be vulnerable and sit with your emotions

Many of us feel weak when we cry. It doesn’t feel good, and unnecessary judgements from the world around us haven’t been helpful. But if athletes sit with their physical discomfort for hours, nobody judges. Why is it so much harder for us to sit with our feelings and emotional discomfort, and tell ourselves that it’s ok? It takes courage to sit with our sadness, our grief, our hurt, our anger. Hiding them or taking them out on a boxing bag can be effective at times. But allowing yourself to feel them and accept that they’re there; that takes courage. It is an act of self-love, self-care. Once you start recognising what it is and sit with it before you (re)act, you will discover that it will pass. It is ok to be vulnerable. It is brave to be vulnerable. It means you are strong enough to let it be. 

Putting yourself first

Negative self-talk, not saying no, pushing yourself….we have talked about this in the past few newsletters. Being brave sometimes means putting yourself first. When you feel tired at a party, when you feel too tired at the gym, or can’t keep up at work…it takes courage to speak up for yourself. To say: I need to sleep, I need to rest, I need a break. You’re not scared to stand up for others, so you shouldn’t be scared standing up for yourself. It only means that you want your friendships, your training and job to work out.

Keep going

It take guts to keep going when it feels like the world is against you or doesn’t understand you. It takes courage to accept the uncertainty ahead, the things you can’t control. The vulnerability as a human being. Simply moving forward and putting yourself out there is the biggest act of bravery. Do it. Feel it. See it, when you look at yourself in the mirror. You’re a hero.

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