A Different Sort of Courage
Whether we are focused on healing our bodies, healing our society or healing the planet, we are being asked for a different sort of courage. This courage is being ask of all of us, from child to elder, from laborer to manager, from humble to wealthy.
This courage differs from the courage of the lone fighter, the hero risking death to save loved ones, the individualist going it alone to the heights of success. The courage to give yourself in death for what you believe has changed the world yet it is an unsustainable courage and it paralyzes growth and healing. Only by developing a courage steeped in nurturing, love and openness can we hope to heal ourselves and our world.
This different courage is about looking inward, rather than outward; about facing the demons inside our heads that may not lead to individual death but definitely lead to the death of human potential; about finding solutions that include and support even those we disagree with; about creating rather than destroying.
It is a question of expanding a woman’s natural instinct
Women know this courage in the context of their personal communities because of their biological charter as generators and nurturers of the human species. Their first instinct is to save and protect life within the bounds of their “circle of caring”: family, tribe, culture, religion, nation. This instinct to save, to connect, to nurture is the source of a new way of seeing and solving problems and a new way of experiencing the world. In this nurturing instinct we have the building blocks to create a new humanity that can achieve its genius in harmony with nature and each other.
What we must do is expand this instinct beyond the “circle of caring” and develop its potential into tools, beliefs, patterns of engagement and unconscious governors of our actions. This uses a different kind of courage that is willing to open, to include, to love, to grow, to change, to look inward to make a difference outward.
Can we shift a primal instinct?
In order to expand the nurturing instinct beyond the circle of caring we must address what is most scary about reaching out to someone who is outside the circle and thus is categorized as “other”. When we go beyond the boundaries of “us” into “them” we automatically wonder: what if their success is a threat to my existence? If I include them can we both survive? The thoughts are so scary that we are generally unaware that we have thought them and we unconsciously make the decision to protect our existence by denying them theirs. For what is more frightening to the mind than non-existence?
When I am assured of my survival then I can easily reach out to help others. When my survival is in doubt then my response is to close, to protect, to create barriers between me and the “other”, to take a stance of “me first” and create reasons why my survival is more important than theirs.
The basic questions are:
- Am I willing to develop the courage to hold my fear of non-existence at the same time I reach out to care beyond the circle?
- Am I willing to develop my self-concept so that I can respond from a place of openness, love, inclusion, and growth?
- Am I willing to use my new courage to open my eyes to the development of my potential and that of humanity’s?
- Am I willing to use my courage in the service of mindful questioning–questioning everything, from the place of heart and soul?
Drop me a line if you are curious about how developing your courage could make a difference in your health, your life, your world.
