THE PERKS OF BEING BRAVE

This article is inspired by Brene Brown. She is the author of couple of good books you can out her site brenebrown.com for those of you who don’t know her. I saw a Ted talk of hers titled “The power of vulnerability" and this was a topic that resonated with me a lot. For a big part of my life I have pondered, researched and read books trying to really understand or find out how I could conquer my fears. Most books where not helpful because it was mainly theory and no real practical examples on how to deal with or overcome fear.

One interesting book I read was "Living in the light" by Shakti Gawain; from it I made some of the most interesting experiences in my life just by experimenting with some of the exercises in the book. One of the principles that I applied from that book was to first establish a strong loving relationship with my inner or higher self and then go out into the world sending love to every person I saw e.g. imagining a ray of light shooting from my heart to the hearts of everyone I saw, another exercise was to follow your intuition by saying or doing the first thing that comes to your mind without filtering it. I can honestly say that this had very interesting outcomes e.g. one my biggest fears typical to a teenager was fear of rejection mainly from the opposite sex so this was a good place to start testing the exercises. Whenever I saw someone who I found attractive I would just walk up and talk to them without planning or even filtering what I wanted to say, a lot of the times I got a positive response but the most important aspect of it is that I had no expectations whatsoever which made the experiment very light and easy going. There were times where I would show interest in a girl without even asking for their phone number which in turn made them wait in anticipation for me to ask; one thing that never lies is our body language and in this case their body language totally gave them away.

Just to be clear, this was not an attempt to get laid or anything like that, I was just simply forcing pushing myself into situations that made me feel uncomfortable or even insecure and these experiences really did wonders on how I connected with people and not just those of the opposite sex. You can say that this connection was also very psychic in nature because very often people had a lot of “aha!” moments during our conversations because somehow I would just say things which resonated deeply with them on a personal level and that for me was astounding to say the least. Though during that time my ego would also get a bit inflated sometimes, looking back at these experiences I am deeply humbled because I recognize that something bigger than myself was at work here and I served only as a conduit.

In our society we have learned to filter ourselves a lot, most often people don’t say what they really think or feel and when this goes on long enough in can result in anger and resentment because there are a lot of emotions piling up but they can only pile up to a certain level until they come crashing down.

The trick with this whole experiment was to let go of expectations and ultimately the ego. The ego is very fragile even though it likes to play tough and that is why it will do anything to keep you from doing anything that might expose its vulnerability and that is why most people struggle to become the best version of themselves because this requires putting yourself on the spot, whether it be trying something new and maybe failing a couple of times, facing possible rejection from family or friends. This might sound rough, well, in actual fact it is, but this should not scare you because this is the stuff that champions are made of in life.

You can start today to be a little brave in your life, it does not have to be anything extreme, and it may even just be greeting a stranger on the street even if they might not greet you back. Ultimately it is the small steps that lead up to the big outcome, so yes, personally I can testify from my own life experience that showing vulnerability is an act of bravery.

With these words I leave you in love and peace!