Last month we sat with Clarity, the kind that comes quietly, once the noise settles.
This month, we turn toward Courage, and I'm writing to you from a very real place with it.
Last week, my teacher, Sri Bhagavan, passed. He was the greatest teacher I have ever had.
When someone this dear to you drops the physical body, everything adjusts: within yourself, your relationships, your community, the whole world. And a very important part of that adjustment is the allowance of grief. The waves move through unexpectedly, and what I'm learning in real time is that courage is choosing not to suffer. Not by pushing the grief away, but by letting it flow without resistance. When there's resistance, the stories get louder, the memories of what was and the fear of what lies ahead, until it all feels overwhelming. When there isn't, it moves.
This is what I want to say about courage, and it took me most of two decades to actually believe it: it was never about being unafraid. Every brave thing I've done, I did scared. The fear didn't leave first and then I acted. I acted, and the fear came along for the ride.
Courage, as I've come to understand it, isn't a feeling you wait to arrive. It's a choice you make while the old, familiar response is still right there, still available, still easier. Sometimes that response is the urge to react. Sometimes it's the urge to brace against what you're feeling. It's choosing the pause instead. Again. And then again.
That's what we'll be exploring together tonight, in our monthly one-hour, topic-based teaching session. We'll talk about what courage really means, how it feels and shows up in your body, and we'll practice it together through breath, movement and meditation. I know many of us need this right now.
Where am I waiting to feel brave, instead of just beginning? And where am I resisting something that only wants to move?
Bring those questions with you.
I'm offering this as a gift to you, on me, no charge. Come and feel for yourself what Collective Rise is like, and decide whether to join based on that. No pressure.
Collective Rise: Courage. Wednesday, October 7th, 4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET. [Free to join this month.] Register here.
In Radiance,
Catherine