Courage and the Self

  Yesterday and today I have been thinking alot about the idea of courage. Interestingly, it has been quite the pondering theme for me the past 24 hours..... 


     I spent a majority of my late afternoon yesterday reading Osho's philosophy on the principle in his book "Courage: the Joy of Living Dangerously." How many of us step outside our comfort zones and/or the "masks" we put on to the world? Do we reveal who we truly are or bask in the shadows of fear? Osho makes a distinction between courage and complete fearlessness. Fear is a part of life; everyone will experience it throughout life. Courage, however, is acknowledging the fear that is present and being oneself despite the fear. It can be scary going into the unknown because that is when we feel most vulnerable, but it is also an authentic and powerful experience.
 
     I just finished the book earlier this morning on my way to work. It is full of so many insightful and motivating things, a few of which spoke to me most....as it relates to my own fears lately with "exposing" myself through my writing and knowing people are reading my various "thoughts" on here...the "real" me.

     A few insightful quotes:

"To allow somebody to reach your center is risky, dangerous, because you never know what that person will do to you. And once all your secrets are known, once your hiddeness has become unhidden, once you are exposed completely, what that other person will do you never know. The fear is there. That's why we never open."

"Just be what you are and don't care a bit about the world. Then you will feel a tremendous relaxation and a deep peace within your heart. This is what Zen people call your 'original face'---relaxed, without tensions, without pretensions, without hypocrisies, without the so-called disciplines of how you should behave."
 

    I LOVE THAT LAST QUOTE! This is exactly how I feel about writing blogs....which is why I was so afraid to do it at first.....worrying what other people think. Even though it has been scary, I continue to keep going with a sense of courage because the more I write, the more I feel an odd sense of freedom to be myself, despite the opinions or potential judgment of others. I think, who cares!! It could be a great thing, for people I know (and don't know) to know the real me, masks removed! I'm definitely not fearless, don't get me wrong.....but I'm not truly living if I don't take risks. I would rather choose freedom over a "safe", dull, predictable existence. What is there to look forward to without a little "unknown" to give us that thrill and touch of anxiety in the best possible sense?!
 
    Another phenomenal quote: ""What matters is your choice: your choice to learn, your choice to experience, your choice to go into the dark. Slowly slowly your courage will start functioning. And sharpness of intelligence is not something separate from courage, it is almost one organic whole."

     Be yourself. How refreshing! How easy to say and how hard to do, but meaningful when one CAN manage to do so. After having read up on the subject, it was interesting to then be channel surfing last night and stumble upon the same theme! I came upon this show on PBS that instantly caught my attention. I was trying to figure out what was going on, as I happened to be catching the show at the last 10 minutes or so of whatever it was. There were a bunch of teenagers of different backgrounds (Israeli, Palestinian, Indian,etc) at this camp in the wilderness, I think in the US somewhere. The whole point of this camp was the hope that they would become more open-minded to see each other as equals/a common humanity.....people who otherwise view each other as "the enemy" when they are back on their "home turf." It was very cool to see/hear that it actually did happen, even though their whole lives they had been trained by their particular society to do just the opposite. It was called "Seeds of Peace." Then, right after that show was another segment of the "America at a Crossroads" series I had seen before.

     The first one I watched last month was about soldiers writing about their thoughts, feelings, and experiences regarding war. This one was called "Faith Without Fear." An Islamic woman, Irshad Manji, challenges the ideas of Fundamentalist extremism in the thought provoking program: pbs.org/weta/crossroads/about/show_faith_without_fear.html. Talk about inspiring! I thought to myself: wow, if this woman can be so courageous and speak out against injustices despite facing frequent death threats against her for doing so....what excuse do I possibly have for not working towards living more courageously myself?!?!
 
     Being yourself and not worrying what other people think....true freedom. Not only that, this also came up in two really awesome sessions I had with clients today. The first session I had wasn't necessarily about courage, but in a weird way, I felt like I had some insightful feedback/perspective to give him today because of some of the positive things I read in my book....like communicating how you feel about something in an honest and real way. And the cool thing is that the guy seemed to be open to what I was saying, like he really stopped, listened, and was processing it. With my clients that rarely happens during a session, so that made me feel good. Then, the second guy I saw today was talking about shame he feels in regard to his drug use. I talked with him about courage and not worrying what other people think, especially since they are going to think what they want to think anyway. He also really listened to what I had to say, like he might consider following the little "exercise" I gave him to work on overcoming shame in favor of "exposing" himself with courage.

     All in all, I've gained much insight from the ideas on courage presented to me to think about from not only the book, but seeing it in action....within myself and others.