How to get your courage, Part 2. Get a piece of paper. Write down your two biggest fears; it takes guts to admit them. Say to your fears something like, “Worry reduces my inner self and spreads fear to my friends. Leave my mind and my heart.” Tape the paper to monitor or mirror. For one take, retake control over anxiety. Don’t quit.
Not letting fear control our thinking, dialogs, meals, and life, is a superior human achievement. Naming, facing, and banning them — that’s key to Courage 101.
Fear has 2 moving parts. First, it’s a huge primitive emotional reaction to a lethal threat; it triggers more than 26 involuntary physiological reactions (heart races, mouth goes dry). The biggest is that fear drains blood from our brains to arouse our major muscle groups for a life-and-death struggle against saber-tooth tigers. Filled with stress hormones, we lose logic and become freaked out Neanderthals on crack. We act badly; we become our worst selves.
We counter fear’s first moving part with BICBOF: BREATH IN COURAGE, BLOW OUT FEAR. Take slow, deep, diaphragmatic breaths, 5 seconds in 5 long, slow seconds out. This dissipates our home-made street drugs and frees us from looking like stunned mullets. (Read James Nestor’s Breath to learn why slow nasal breathing is essential to your health and weight, as well.)
Part 3: how to beat fear’s second moving part. Check out THE COURAGE PLAYBOOK: 5 STEPS TO OVERCOME YOUR FEARS AND BECOME YOUR BEST SELF at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. You can also read this on guslee.net or LEADERS OF CHARACTER, LLC, on fb.
Make it a courageous day by how you treat non-friends.
