Why being courageous is more important than being spiritual
The meaning of spirituality is different for everyone. For some it is linked to religion. For others it is a quest to finding themselves: It could be about going for a yoga class every Friday or having a meditation practice. For a musician, making music maybe a spiritual experience in itself. There are no right or wrong answers as to what spirituality actually is.
The main aim of a spiritual practice is to cultivate a high level of conscious awareness, often aimed at increasing contemplation and reflective thinking. This helps you to unlearn fear and return to your core being which is ultimately love.
Therefore, the path of spirituality is not the destination, but a journey and this journey can only be tread valiantly with courage.
Some life situations may be wretchedly painful, even traumatic. For instance, you might be stuck in a job you hate, relationships that drain you or be born into a family that don’t accept you. You might be faced with patterns in your life that are difficult to break. In such heart-breaking circumstances we tend to avoid painful or conflicting emotions in our lives as that is what we have been taught.
This avoidance transforms into distractions such as escaping to holiday destinations, drinking with friends, shopping or dropping in for the occasional Reiki session instead of facing our painful emotions. In fact, according to Dr Julie Brown Yau, many people unconsciously use meditation or excessive prayer to support pain dissociation from their body.
The more we suppress our emotions, the more we distract ourselves from our fears and the more our unhealthy patterns will repeat. To heal the mind, we need to experience the emotions that go with our stories, and of course, those emotions are located in our body.
‘You have plenty of courage, I am sure. All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.’ – The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
No amount of yoga poses that shape you like a pretzel or sitting in a secluded cave to meditate for nine years can make a real difference to your life. You will need courage to sit with uncomfortable feelings of pain and make decisions to change your circumstances whilst facing fear. Only when you can do this, will you see a major positive shift in your life. This too is the path of spirituality. The best way to overcome a fear is to face it, but it is important to do so in a gentle manner that helps you move past the fear and not in a way that traumatizes you.
Elizabeth Kenny, a phenomenal woman who was the founder of modern physical therapy says it very eloquently: ‘Better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.’
In essence, we don’t need to be a lion to climb Mount Everest to show our courage, although that would be spectacular. The roar of our heart is in the small acts of courage that bring about significant changes in our lives, but only if we listen.
So, where does the roar of your heart take you today?
