Introduction
Just like every soul can be regarded as a splendorous lotus with beautiful petals, so can courage – and each of its petals have attributes worth cherishing, be it faith, trust, bravery and strength, integrity or love. When we were young and full of heroic ingenuity, we would immediately try to conquer our fears by jumping with our eyes closed in their direction, and then end up in extreme situations that everybody else would have thought twice about. But that young and unbreakable way to face the world, even though it might seem naive now, it actually made us who we are and created a strong foundation for real and pure courageous behavior. That primal form of braveness developed our character’s muscles and gave us the ability to face the world in a fearless way that later allowed us to hold steady and strong when complicated life-choices and situations crossed our path.
What is courage?
When one decides to have a child, it takes pretty much all the courage in the world to come up with such life-changing decision with absolute certainty – and every single step along the way requires divine strength to adapt to such change, but we all are able to do it because it’s part of our deepest nature.
Courage is what keeps our feet on the ground whenever our health condition is shaken by some unexpected disease and we have to recalculate our life’s expectations and still keep the full will to move on. Courage makes us wish to breathe every day even when we’re depressed about our lives and see no door to open and get out of such negative moment. Courage makes us keeping on pushing the envelope of our expectations about ourselves and it’s one of the greatest triggers for personal improvement.
Is your partner the one? Confused? Get clarity now.
Free Chat with a Live Psychic »Even though we tend to think of courage as the condition needed to jump out of an airplane or practicing some form of extreme sports, it actually is the fuel of life that allows us to deal with our daily dilemmas and challenges, so we all have more courage than we imagine – especially if we become aware that the daily strength to cope with adversities is sheer courage – and there’s always room to become more courageous, for it’s something that can be learned and developed.
Courage is what burns in our hearts the moment a situation is screaming for us to say “no”, but we say “yes” instead. Courage is moving forth in the direction of new experiences and having the desire to try something new even if it looks very alien to us. And it’s also what allows us to stand up for what we believe in and have the strength to positively question authority, be it related to a family member, a boss or a political figure. Courage is about saying what we think whenever nobody else has what it takes to do so.
Such bravery makes us face complicated challenges with an open heart that allows compassion, integrity and awareness to flow right into it. The moment we act bravely, it means we are being driven by something greater, a higher purpose, so we are sincerely willing to risk anything for as long as we can stand for our passions and for what matters to us.
Courage improves your life
By building up your courage levels, your personal life is what’s improved in the end, for it will allow you to take serious risks so that a brighter future is right ahead of you, instead of standing still. Courage makes us put fear behind our backs without ever forgetting they exist, but instead admitting they exist and that we are willing to pursue ways to eliminate them and never allow them to overwhelm us.
To feel fear is not a bad thing, for it’s our natural alarm that keeps us alive. When we are standing on the edge of a very tall rooftop, it’s fear that informs us of what we can and cannot do in order to stay alive. Healthy fear is absolutely positive and there’s nothing wrong with it – it’s the moment we put our unhealthy fears in a dominant position in our lives that a problem arises.
Developing courage teaches us some of the most important lessons we can learn, for it teaches us to have the dignity to accept both punishments and rewards with the same open-hearted attitude. Those who have courage can easily and effortlessly accept the responsibility and the blame for their actions, while having a positive perspective that brings them the possibility to learn from their mistakes. A brave person will always move forward whenever a new opportunity to grow comes his way – but can also take a step back it that’s what is needed to review his mistakes with a blissful mindset.
A person who is full of courage has the spontaneity to never really plan his life to a sickening extent, because he’s certain that nobody can really predict what tomorrow will bring us. And if we take some time to think about it, that’s always happening to us! How many times have you planned to take your family to a nice weekend on the countryside – so you planned the location, the leisure, the path, everything! But then on Friday a serious storm ruins all your plans, even though the weather forecast was making you feel so sure that nothing could ruin your relaxed weekend. Planning is not exactly something that is always in our favor, and that’s why spontaneity is a beautiful attribute that courage gifts us with – it allows us to adapt!
Those who are willing to keep improving their lives will always have a blissful mindset, for even failure is seen as something that won’t affect their relaxation. A storm wouldn’t ruin a weekend for such people, it would instead open new doors of possibilities that are just as joyful as the countryside plan.
If you learn how to trust yourself and your intuition, not only you’ll become more successful on all of your choices, but your quality of life will also be improved, for the moment you trust yourself you allow your mind to trust others as well. We all know that everyone says we live in a world where nobody can really be trusted, but don’t we all have a handful of people we could simply rely our lives on? And if we can trust ourselves, can’t we have enough certainty that things will go alright?
When you put your mind to brave and creative use, your life is improved as new ideas are brought to your field of view and all the options and resources in the world are unfolded in front of you.
Developing courage from within
By developing courage we equip ourselves with serious skill and power to face problems and make no adversities stand on our way. It’s the ultimate psychological muscle that keeps us strong to deal with any challenge that might come, and we all should develop it because it reinforces our resistance and resilience, making us more confident than ever. Some people simply turn to unhealthy substances to face their problems, but others know that a healthy courage supply is the best alternative, so here are some tips to work on your courage muscle:
- Live the moment
How many times have you stopped yourself from taking a risky action just because you were much more focused on what could happen afterwards? Try to live the moment, one after the other. Take notice of your intuition and body signals, live the emotions they bring you and walk towards what really matters in a given moment without over-calculating the outcome.
- Acknowledge your fears
You can only overcome what you recognize for what it really is. Stop blaming others for things you are afraid of doing. Stop explaining to yourself how impossible something is, and simply admit sometimes that only your fears are standing in the way of your progress. Acknowledge your fears and you’ll be able of working on eliminating them.
- Take action, face your fears
Don’t simply run away from what you fear, take action and feel proud for yourself every time you do so, no matter if it was a big or a small fear that you just faced, because courage is built one step at a time. Use your courage like an armor and move right through what scares you with the certainty that only personal growth can come out of that.
- Grow from your fears
It’s usually the ego that strips us off of courage to move forth. When we experience fear we’re most of the times believing the lies the ego negatively tells us all the time, making us weak and vulnerable. Try to see beyond your fears and step over how much they’re ruling your life, for after that wall there’s a deeper truth waiting for you.
- Risk running away from routine
Why shouldn’t you allow yourself to try something new every day, if deep down your heart you’re so certain that it’s the small risks you take that make you strong and ready to face the bigger ones? Boost your confidence by walking out of a predictable path all the time and see your courage peaking to new brave levels!
Conclusion and final words
Spiritual courage allows us to stop resisting ourselves and start embracing the whole world, for when we welcome this divine journey for what it is, we accept as well who we truly are – powerful, mature, whole and free. Osho’s views on courage are like light casted on a dark cave that allows us to see all of its wonders when we open our hearts to it: “Remember, you can know much about love, but that cannot help to know love. Love can be known only by loving. It means you have to move into love without knowing anything about it. That’s why it needs courage. You have to move in the dark, with no map, nobody to guide, not even a torch. You have to move in the dark not knowing where you are moving, not knowing whether you are on the right track or not, not knowing whether you will find the path or you will fall in a ditch and be lost forever. This is the courage.”