How to Be Brave

The irony of being brave is that you have to be scared. Bravery and courage must exist together with fear.

I’m not sure why this is so comforting to me. Maybe it’s because it gives me permission to just feel scared about shit. I’ve realized in the past that I suffered so much trying to stop myself from feeling scared; it causes suffering because it doesn’t work. There’s no stopping a feeling. There’s only masking it, distracting from it, ignoring it, being delusional about it.

When I give myself up to a feeling like fear, it doesn’t mean I suddenly have zero suffering, but it does mean that I can let go of control and reduce the amount of suffering.

Quite literally giving into feeling afraid IS first step of bravery. All of the steps that happen after that could not have been possible without that first one.

Scared to get on a stage? To start a business? To move? To say goodbye? To jump out of a plane? To be a parent? Good! Be scared! Lift your fit and step into the fear, then lift your other foot on do the scary thing. Your voice may shake, your body may freak out, your head my spin, your may say something stupid, you may get your heart broken, you may fail.

May? Nay. WILL.

You just have to be ok with that. By the way, every time I say “you”, it’s me talking to me in a mirror. If you are taking this to mean I’m speaking to you, well I guess that’s ok.

Go be scared and be brave!