We have been exploring in our yoga practice what courage means from a couple of different perspectives. The first being the courage to defend our country, homes, ourselves, our families and our values – and we can see courageous acts happening all across the world when fighting against oppression.
Nelson Mandala describes this type of courage perfectly:
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but triumph over it”
Another perspective of courage is having the courage to enquire deep into ourselves, to face our shadows, unpick unhelpful thoughts and behaviours to see what drives them. If we don’t do this during our lifetimes; then they generally get passed onto our children, families and loved ones and in extreme circumstances, we begin to identify with our egos and turn into the angry people we see all around us today (some of whom are the oppressors!).
I like to use the onion analogy. At the core we are all untouched, loving, blissful human beings (not human doings like we usually demonstrate!). Through inherited trauma, our childhood, socioeconomic background, gender, race and so forth; we have built layers around our core to protect ourselves from pain and therefore sometimes develop unhelpful thoughts, behaviours and addictions (to numb our emotions). It takes courage to face the pain, the fear and past trauma. Brene Brown is a researcher on vulnerability with a very famous ted talk (check it out!) and quotes that…
“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen”
We can only really dig deep and understand ourselves when we give ourselves the space and time to do so, away from distractions. Even though we collectively practice yoga together at Forest Retreats, you are encouraged to have your own experience and not to focus on what any other students are doing and do whatever feels right for you – even if that means you stay in childs pose for the whole hour! Yes we do delve into some “big” subjects, but we also like to laugh, chat, share experiences and have fun because we honestly need more of that in our lives too!
Thank you for reading and hope you have the courage to do something that takes you out of your comfort zone soon and of course have fun!
Namaste
Hayley (Forest Retreats)
