Finding Your Courage
Knowing who you are will help you stand your ground in times of change.
"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." ~Carl Jung
These are disruptive times. With so much flooding of the zone, it can be easy to get overwhelmed, shut down, or to outsource our opinions to the voice that speaks the loudest.
What I’ve found is that before we can stand up and take action on the outside, an important step is to turn inward to uncover what our hearts know to be true: Normalized cruelty and widespread violence aren’t sustainable.
But what can one person do to turn the tide of a world that seems to losing it’s heart? Fear can keep us from speaking up or standing up, and rightly so as backlash is real. In addition, societal conditioning (all the “shoulds” that we are told and that we accept to be true) can prevent us from owning who we truly are and living on purpose.
Yet I believe each of us is here on the planet right now for a reason, and that we were made for this moment. Part of the heroine’s journey is remembering who you truly are, and then embodying that person on both the inside and the outside.
Change starts with an inside job, and the more of us who are able to tap into the courage to practice self acceptance and radical self love, the more we’ll be able to raise the collective consciousness.
This week I interviewed Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action and the author of the new book Fired Up: How To Turn Your Spark Into A Flame And Come Alive At Any Age. for an upcoming Forbes article. Throughout the book, she uses fire as an analogy as a tool for transformation, and in the end, rebirth. Shannon made a point in the book that the biggest regret people have at their deathbed is that they did not live a life that was true to who they are.
Shannon shared a turning point moment for her when, as a mother of five, she went to her yoga class for a teacher training program after the Sandy Hook shooting, and was floored that the teacher didn’t address the tragedy at all but just went on with class as usual. I think so many of us are feeling this way today, like the world is on fire and everyone is operating as if its all normal. That moment was a catalyst for Shannon, who wrote, “The only way to stay sane was to act.”
Upon writing an impassioned Facebook post saying there is more we all can do to end gun violence, Shannon went on to found Moms Demand Action in 2012, a grassroots movement to end gun violence that has mobilized nearly 11 million supporters and that has proved the power of the collective to stand up to powerful lobbyists and stop the gun industry’s agenda in statehouses 90% of the time—all sparked by one woman who couldn’t stand by and watch for one moment longer.
So many women may want to act and have an impact, but may be telling themselves all the things: “I’m not qualified. I’m too old. I’m too busy.” Shannon, a self-described introvert with ADHD and a former debilitating fear of public speaking, says she was all too familiar with the doubts and excuses for not living on fire that she hears from many women, because she too had the same doubts. Yet she overcame those doubts and decided to live on fire. She writes, “Turns out this neurodiverse, reserved, middle-aged mom in the midwest was exactly the right person for the job.”
For me, this book is about helping women own who they are so they can live on purpose—whatever that looks like for you at the life stage where you are.
It’s a delicate dance of working on liberating ourselves from the inside out when pushing against external structures. My hope for you is that you take time to fuel your own fire, to spend time with yourself and explore your desires. It’s an ongoing process, a daily practice of staying connected to who you are. The practice will be different for each of us. Here are some ideas to help you get started:
15 minutes of daily journaling as soon as you wake up (check out The Artist’s Way to learn about morning pages)
A solitary walk in the forest or on a nature trail
Guided meditations (you might try Dr. Joe Dispenza’s YouTube channel to see if it resonates)
Reading inspirational books that help provide insights into how to decondition yourself (I’m reading Women Who Run With Wolves: Myths And Stories Of The Wild Woman Archetype)
As always, you can also uncover more about your unique energy map by downloading a free chart from my website here to get direction on how to best use your energy for the greatest impact.
If you have ideas or suggestions on daily practices to stay centered and become more conscious of conditioning, I’d love to hear what’s working for you. You can email me at holly@hollycorbett.com.
Until next week,
