Courage

The topic for April is Courage. When you think of courage, what images, people or feelings come to mind? Is it the cowardly lion on Wizard of Oz who needs his friends to find his own courage? Is it a peace making hero like Ghandi who stands for what he believes in at any cost? Or is it someone close to you that is seems to always take risks? Whatever comes to mind, courage can mean many different things to each one of us. What is important is that we know what that definition is.

For me, courage means having enough guts to speak my truth no matter who I am with or what circumstance I find myself in. Courage means knowing deeply who I am - my values, my beliefs, my convictions, my shadows, my light, my goals, and my dreams. Then I need to chose to accept and embody these aspects of myself. For most of my life, I have been a people pleaser which means that I developed habits and a state of being that could conform and change shape - like a chameleon - to my environment, just so that I would be liked, respected and admired. For the most part, this automatic behavior worked. I was liked, was successful in my career, climbed the corporate ladder, was a leader of every team I was a part of, etc. However, I began to find that something was unfulfilled inside of me. In truth, I wasn't being honest with myself. I wasn't owning all of the aspects that make me who I am. This type of behavior or automatic response began to eat away at me, depleted my energy and left me searching to understand what really was my truth? As I continue to journey each day to peel another layer of who I am, I realize that it is a courageous act to simply BE. It is a courageous act to get up each day and consciously choose to experience it in such a way that expresses why I am here on this earth. It is an act of standing up and honoring who I am that closes my own personal integrity gap (of who I am and who I want to be). And it is this definition, for today, that I identify with. So, this month, I choose to be courageous, in the act of BEING all that I am and choosing not to hide any of it.

What is your definition of courage? What courageous act can you take this month that will elevate your life to a new level?