Special note: Should I have changed the word "cripple" to "physically challenged"? Was is courageous or was it foolhardy to not do that? I can argue both ways. I'd been interested in your feedback, if you care to give it to me.

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Is your courage a cripple?

 

Full courage has four cornerstones, or four legs. Without all three legs, the strength and resilience of your courage is weakened. Most of us are familiar with only one of the four legs, the third one. Learn about the other three legs here.

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1) The leg of acceptance and alignment (first step)

 

The first leg, unfamiliar to most of us, is the “leg of acceptance and alignment.” Courage includes

embracing and aligning with the energy of the fear, rather than resisting the fear, as we are accustomed to do.

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Fear is just energy. Yet, we have learned to automatically resist it, both mentally and physiologically. We treat it like an enemy. When we do that, it will be our enemy. If we we accept and embrace it, we can use it as our friend.

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Making friends with your fear

 

One way to easily align yourself with your fear, so that you can tap into and use its energy in the service of your desires and commitments, is to use Undoing fear tool, speaking/shouting as you breathe deeply into your belly, “Holy moly and jeepers weepers, I'm so scared that..."

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Because our automatic and habitual response to fear is to resist it and misalign ourselves with it, we must be proactive in embracing its energy.

 

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2) The leg of self-acknowledgment (second step)

 

The second leg, also unfamiliar to most of us, is the “leg of self-acknowledgment.”

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Courage includes honoring and acknowledging ourselves for our choice of courage before the act of courage. Do this after you complete the “Holy moly"  process.

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How to acknowledge yourself

 

Here’s a powerful way to create profound self-acknowledgment: Consider the idea that it’s not the adult in you who is frightened. It’s the five-year-old in you who is frightened.

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Get in touch with that five-year-old you. See and feel that he or she is frightened. Then say to him or her,

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“I can see and feel that you are frightened.”

“It’s okay to feel frightened.”

“I really honor and admire you for the courage you’re considering choosing here.”

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Express your admiration and appreciation of him or her until you feel that he or she understands. Of course, when he or she gets it, then you get it!

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3) The leg of action (third step)

 

The third leg, familiar to all of us, is the “leg of action.” Courage is taking action in the service of our deepest desires and highest commitments in the face of fear. Taking action is an important and essential part of courage.

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Sometimes choosing courage is not acting when we want to

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In most circumstances, the choice of courage means taking some action. Sometimes, however, choosing courage could involve not taking an action. For example, it might be a choice of courage for a parent to keep their mouth shut instead of telling their child what to do or not do.

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4) The leg of re-acknowledgement (fourth step)

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After the action is over (the third leg), regardless of the outcome (remember that courage exists independent of the outcome), get back in touch with your five-year-old and again express your admiration

for the courage he or she just chose. Continue doing this until you can feel that you're quite proud of yourself.

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What you can expect

 

By including all four legs as integral parts of every act of courage, you will be amazed at how empowered you feel. 

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Without all four legs, choosing courage will continue to seem like a "hard thing to do." Every time you choose courage, including all four legs, the choice of courage will occur as easier and easier. Each time your "courage muscle" gets stronger.

 

Find at least three opportunities today to choose courage.

 

Practice including all four legs in each expression of courage.

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“...we’re not truly feeling our fear, but rather only our urge to flee it— we are, in such a case, desperately trying to escape from our fear, to change our state, to propel or project ourselves into a condition of such pleasurable diversion that our sensations of fear are minimized, or perhaps not even felt at all! This craving to not directly feel our fear only strengthens it; those who persist in such behavior tend to disembody, to only live on the periphery of themselves, as far away as possible from the intensity of their fear, dwelling in the thinking portions of their minds, committing themselves to the search for release ... ever looking for antidotes for what they are already doing to themselves!"

—Robert Augustus Masters in "Truth Cannot Be Rehearsed"

 

"You are under the unfortunate delusion that simply because you run away from danger, you have no courage. You’re confusing courage with wisdom."

—Professor Marvel in "The Wizard of Oz"

"What you resist, persists. If you take ownership and deal with things that are bothering you, then, in the very process of dealing with them they very often will go away."

—Carl Jung