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Courage: getting beyond fear

Elanor Roosevelt, one of my favorite people of all time, once said; “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”

There are 3 things according to Jack Canfield, author of Success Principles,  that stop us from doing what we know we should do or even want to do.  They are; considerations, fears and roadblocks.  I am not going to talk about the considerations or roadblocks right now, but I do know that fear is something that all of us feel probably everyday even if we do not identify it as fear.  While fear is a good thing in many circumstances, when we allow it to get in the way of achieving our goals, it no longer is serving us in a positive manner.

Much of what we fear is made up in our imagination and we hold onto to that belief,  image we have in our mind, or the experience we have had far beyond that it may have been true.  Then when we try to achieve a goal that we really want, guess what happens?  The picture comes back in our mind and we retreat to our comfort zone – no matter how much we want to step out and reach our goal. 

This happens to kids and adults.  Funny thing though as adults we have ways of hiding behind our fears.  Many times that is called, procrastination.  That is another subject all together.  What kind of attitude do we need if we are going to get beyond our fears?  We need to have a positive attitude with energy and enthusiasm.  We need to break out of the prison that we are held in, one that has been largely created by ourselves of what we can’t do and all the reasons that is true, and focus on the the way we want to be.  As we create the image of our success in our mind and feel it in our body, this can become our new reality.

Albert Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”  This month we will continue to examine courage and how we can develop this characteristic as we face our fears and challenges with determination.

 

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Special awareness day invitation

 

On September 19 at 9 AM there is a walk of awareness that is taking place in Annapolis to support suicide prevention.  While this is a subject that is hard to approach and one we hope we may never ‘have’ to talk about, it is one to be aware of the signs and what we can do to prevent the feelings of stress and depression to escalate to a more serious situation.

I would invite you to come with me on this walk and to support the Out of the Darkness organization in there quest to provide support and information to our community.

I have started a team of walkers on their website and contributed to a goal of raising $500.00 to support this organization.  The team is called Balanced Life Skills.  Please join me for the walk or if you are not able to do so please make a contribution of any size to be sure there is help and education on this subject for our community.

Go to:  Out of the Darkness Community Walks
Participant / Team Search: balanced life skills
Click on Team Balanced Life Skills
At bottom of the page “Join this Team”

When you are done you can get your own Personalized Sponsor Sheet and raise money for the walk.

The walk begins at 31 Rowe Blvd.  Annapolis, MD Registration is at 8 AM and the walk begins at 9 AM   See my special invitation.  Please include your friends in this cause.

 

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Courage: Letter to Parents

Dear Parents,

Courage is one of the qualities that we want to see in our children.  Being willing to try new things and to know how to cope with our fears is very different that not being scared.  All of us feel scared and nervous from time to time.  But when those fears are based on our imagination or worry about what might happen, that is quite different than when there are real dangers. 

In our school we see it quite often that when a child comes in to try a new class – even if they want to be there the fear of the group or new situation overcomes them.  We are able to help them overcome that and act in a safe and courageous way.  This month we will be talking to our students about courage the following ways.  If you would like your child to have more courage why not try Balanced Life Skills Martial Arts.  We build courage in children and adults.

The definitions we will use for courage this month are:

Young students: “I feel brave!
Older students, teens and adults: Courage is the willingness to face fears and challenges with determination.

During the four weeks of September we will be discussing the following:

Week 1: Courage defined. What does courage mean?  What are people scared of?
Week 2: Taking healthy risks: How can I use courage to try new things and meet new people?
Week 3: Courage and Values:  How can I use courage to stand up for what I think is right and fair?
Week 4: Keeping control:  How can I calm myself down and make good decisions?

If you would like more information please feel free to call us and watch for discussions on this website. Take time this month to think about the times you have shown courage even when times were scary.  Share these experiences with your children in an age appropriate manner and they will see how strength of character has served you.

Thanks to all families in our community who continue to support the practice of Life, Art and Peace.

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Courage: Definition

CourageSeptember word of the month at Balanced Life Skills is Courage.  Courage does not mean that you never are scared.  Everyone gets scared or has fears.  This month we will explore this even more, to find ways to try new things, meet new people, stand up for what is right and make good decisions.   Our students will learn the role that determination plays in facing our challenges.

Young students:

Courage means: I feel brave!

Older students:

Courage means: The willingness to face fears and challenges with determination.


There will be more discussions on this site of this word to help everyone discuss it with their own children and to look at it more deeply with themselves in the coming month. Check back with us or you may join our community for even more information.

 

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An Act of Kindness

It was late in the evening and there in one of the parking spaces was shattered glass.  I have no idea where it came from.  The glass nearly filled the entire space.  One of our students came in to the studio and asked if we had a broom and a way to clean it up.  Once they had the tools it took about 20 minutes or so to get it all cleaned up.

What a great service to others.  How kind was it, not to ignore the problem – but rather to roll up your sleeves and solve the problem.  I am sure there are many of you in our audience that do similar acts.  Why not help us to quantify what our community does and record your special Act of Kindness in our Journal here.  We may choose your story to tell others about your experience.

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Using time and talent is good citizenship

The most valuable thing that we have to share with our communities are our time and our talent. The theological author, Richard Whatley once said, “A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbors.” All of us have some talent, whether we are young children or adults. The question we can ask ourselves is, how can I use my time or talents to help others in my immediate community, or in the larger more distant communities.

They may be simple ways of using our talents like reading or performing a play or playing an instrument. It may be helping to build a house or some other renovation. It could be walking a dog or simply picking up trash in a park. None of these require any more than our time and our talent.

If we can help our children see that time and talent is just as valuable or more, we will be guiding them to to become great citizens of their community and of the world.