Be Brave & Believe

My toes together in ‘crouching down dog’, I leap forward tucking my knees to my chest, shooting my hips over my shoulders, and I'm in HANDST....Crash!!  “Sh**t, I really need an exit strategy”. As I lay there with a sore everything, I take solace in the fact I have at least left the comfort of my safety net.

I use the handstand analogy here, simply as an example. I could just as easily have used work, travel, relationships, or anything else that brought up a fear around something I desired to have.

It's taken me quite a while to get to this point, practicing away from the relative safety of the wall and the growing familiarity of the “handstand practice techniques”. Both started out as a valid progression but eventually ended in keeping me stuck at a point which I was unwilling to pass.

Please don’t get me wrong, I believe there is a place for practicing safely, researching, and testing the waters, but when do those practices lose their benefit and simply become an excuse or validation to stay where you are?

I have found again and again the more I venture away from the protection of my safety net, look and sit with my fears, seeing how they are dictating my life (and believe me as an introvert I have quite a few!), the more I glimpse a life I truly wish to live.

So how do you get from your safe place to your brave place?

1. Be realistic with your fears! Jumping into something head first more often than not will result in one step forward and two steps backward.  Bravery and spontaneity are very different from recklessness and stupidity.
2. Ask yourself with support and absolute honesty, are my current ‘practices’ (in this case my handstand prep) a help or a hindrance to me getting to where I want to go.
3. Am I allowing my fear of failure, ego, or lack of belief get in the way? Or am I simply trusting myself and exclaiming that where I am right now is where I need to be in my life.
4. Finally, can I develop an exit strategy to safely “fall” if I leap too far, too fast?    

At this point, it's time to trust your choices and take that leap. Cheesy to some I am sure, but to use a song title from one of my favorite Irish artists, Declan O’ Rourke – ‘Be Brave and Believe’.