thoughts on practicing courage

in my ebooks and throughout my ecourse last year, i talked a lot about the idea of practicing courage. whether we’re doing something new or intimidating, or just living our everyday lives, i like the idea of little by little practicing what it means to be courageous.

i think about john and i and how we’re practicing, little by little yet every single day, how to communicate, how to love our best. i think about the early days when i tip-toed my way into the creative life and how scary it was. i would practice the task of being fearless by casually trying it on for the day just to see what would happen (pretending until we’re not pretending anymore). inevitably what would happen is that i’d get inspired, and keep going and practice my little heart out, one day at a time. it all eventually led to not just trying it on for a day, but adopting it as a core value in my life.

i can’t tell you how all of that practicing comes in handy right now – a time in my life that is requiring all the courage i can muster as i embrace the wonky ride of new motherhood. courage to let the love in. courage to let it go. courage to adjust, realign, re-evaluate, fall apart, rebuild, and on an on. i hope i’m still practicing my courage when i’m an elderly woman – fierce yet tender, strong yet open. in so many ways, courage keeps our souls alive because it keeps us a little bit afraid when we push up against our own boundaries, when we consider our leaps, our risks, and when we take small steps in spite of the fear. i like that. i like you, courage. you definitely take some practice, but i like you.

i wonder how different our worlds would be – our work worlds, our family worlds, our immediate household worlds – if we were all walking around practicing courage?

i imagine we’d be apologizing more because we wouldn’t be afraid of the vulnerability that comes with admitting when we’re wrong.
we’d be fearlessly telling those we love how much we love them.
we’d be taking small steps toward the lives we envision for ourselves and our families.
we’d be waking up more and more aware that we really are enough.
we’d be embracing our soul work with confidence, knowing that each day is just a practice at doing the best we can.
we’d be giving everyone else in our lives permission to be brave.

and that’s what it’s all about. permission to be brave.

ps – i’m considering running my ecourse again this year (just once this year)! if you think you might be interested, please sign up for my newsletter for updates. if you’re not an ecourse kind of gal, the same content is shared in my ebooks where you can read and absorb at your own pace. i still remain so so proud of my ebooks. in some ways they are the best work i’ve ever done and i’m happy to report that i’ve never, not once, received bad feedback from the almost two thousand that have sold since last fall. that says a lot. and it feels really, really good. i am so proud! but yes, i’m considering running the ecourse version again. it was such a special experience and the community continues to support one another and soar, soar, soar. i really want to be a part of that creation again. we’ll see!