What does it mean to you to be courageous?
How do you access courage when you need it? And how do you know you need it?
To me, courage is an attitude; a conscious, embodied choice that I make in moments when I am challenged by fear, doubt, or uncertainty.
It’s the practice of expanding my inner capacity to stay present, to meet discomfort without collapsing into it, and to stay rooted in what truly matters: values, purpose, and intention.
Courage invites me to turn inward with honesty and compassion, and outward with caring responsibility. It asks me to recognize the reality I help co-create, and to remember my agency in shaping it, which ripples in the spaces and systems I am part of.
It’s not a fixed trait but a living process that I can return to again and again by choosing curiosity over avoidance, and connection over protection.
In a world shaped by complexity, grief, and transformation, courage is essential not only to face what is, but to imagine and bring forth what could be—not just for ourselves, but for our communities and for our planet.
That’s why I feel called to do this work. I’m honored to support those with the willingness to meet themselves and the world with presence, integrity, and heart.
Courage and Our Reactive Mechanisms
When fear, doubt, or uncertainty arise, our nervous system often pushes us into reactive patterns that shape how we think, feel, act, and communicate. These survival responses are commonly known as fight, flight, freeze, or fawn:
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- Fight: meeting discomfort with control, defensiveness, or aggression.
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- Flight: avoiding, escaping, or numbing out.
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- Freeze: shutting down, withdrawing, or going silent.
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- Fawn: pleasing or appeasing to stay safe.
These patterns are deeply human. They evolved to help us survive real danger. Yet today they are often triggered by everyday emotional stress or conflict—not by life-or-death situations. As we seek connection, belonging, and agency, we may find ourselves reacting as if our survival were threatened.
I have often caught myself trying to control what I couldn’t, postponing important tasks, decisions, or dreams because they felt overwhelming, withdrawing from tense conversations, or pleasing others to avoid conflict. Have you?
We all do. It’s natural. But when these primal tendencies go unchecked, they can drain our energy, narrow our choices, and distance us from what we truly need, want, and value.
Courage does not mean silencing these reactions. It means not letting them drive or define us. Courage can be the pause, the breath, the conscious heartbeat that allows us to notice our triggers — both within and around us — and then choose a response aligned with our values, needs, and intentions. This is the essence of a courage practice: transforming automatic reactions into conscious choices.
Some Questions to Ponder
✨ When you feel triggered, which reactive mechanism shows up most often—fight, flight, freeze, or fawn?
✨ What would courage look like in those moments? Could it be a pause, a softer word, a clear stance, an outright no, or perhaps staying present instead of leaving?
✨ What values or intentions bring you back into courage when reactivity takes over?
Courage and reactivity exist in a dynamic relationship. Our reactivity reveals where fear and vulnerability live in us. Courage is the ongoing practice that helps us meet those edges with integrity, presence, discernment, and agency; allowing us not only to survive, but to grow and thrive.
