Finding Courage ...

I recently posted on Instagram a quote I love that said “courage is grace under pressure”.

I think this is beautiful and so many people resonated.

Placing grace and courage together makes sense, we often have this idea that grace is something thats perfect. When actually grace is something that we find in all circumstances of our life and its something that can guide us, and can help us find some peace even in challenging times.

Finding courage in our lives allows us to leap into things, make changes in our lives, have difficult conversations or positive ones but with something we’ve been too scared to say, stand up for ourselves, having to say yes or no to things or even having the courage to surrender.

I know for me when I think of courage it feels big and it hasn’t always come easy in fact it has sometimes felt really hard when I’ve needed to activate courage. It’s taken me to have to surrender to courage and deeply trust, which in itself takes courage.

I read somewhere Brene Brown ( if you have never read Brene, I would suggest giving ago she’s fantastic ) said in a piece “Courage is a heart word”. The root of the word courage is cor - the latin word for heart the word in its earliest forms meant “to speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart” it has expanded as a word to be seen as heroic and brave deeds.”

In French the word for heart is “coeur”.

In its essence, courage is a heart word, speaking from the heart or leaping from heart, doesn’t that feel powerful and beautiful.

Here’s what I will say, words can feel like a pressure sometimes a friend recently said to me, I feel like I’ve lost my courage. We need to have compassion and kindness for ourselves, sometimes we have to remember it takes courage to break and fully surrender.

Removing the pressure and connotation around a word is important too, because this allows us to see things for what they are.

The truth is that sometimes we won’t always have the courage to do something and thats more than ok, when we listen to ourselves in this way we move deeper into alignment even if it feels like we are failing or giving up.

How can we all find more courage in our lives?

Firstly, you need to think about what courage means to you?

What does it feel like and look like?

Think back to times in your life when you’ve felt courageous.

It may take redefining your definition of it to activate it in yourself.

Where in your life do you need to bring more courage in, think about this and remember this isn’t always for big things, it can be the little things too.

I believe it takes courage to love ourselves and have compassion with ourselves in the world we live in today where there’s so much pressure. To deeply listen to what we truly need especially if it goes against something we feel we should be doing, that takes courage.

When we lead from the heart that takes courage and grace.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on courage as you define it, and how it feels in relation to yourself. It’s not just about doing heroic things or being brave, and redefining this is a powerful thing to do.

I truly think being human is a courageous thing with all the twists and turns life brings and the challenges we are all presented with depending on our circumstances. Living in a world with so much polarity and difference and navigating that.

So if you’re reading thinking you and the word courage don’t go together, remember these words and that we all have our inner roar there no matter how quiet it is.

Sending all my love to you the reader.

Hannah X