Courage – The strength to face pain, truth, or vulnerability. “I feared what I might find. But I leaned in anyway.”

When I think of courage, the first images that come to mind include: Captain America, Spider-man, Wonder Woman, etc. Hollywood has created an entire genre based on characters who bravely and courageously stare evil in the eyes and run in to save the world. Those characters are the opposite of me, that is for sure!

What many people don’t know is that emotional pain activates the same pain centers in the body as physical pain. So that old rhyme we all learned as kids about sticks and stones hurting, but words never hurting is a total lie! It takes courage to sit with emotional pain. Acknowledging your vulnerability or the painful truth of past events is brave.

Human beings were designed to move away from pain and toward pleasure. We will do whatever we can to avoid feeling pain, which means allowing emotional pain to go unacknowledged. We use distractions such as work, shopping, alcohol, eating, drugs, etc. to avoid having to face the painful parts of life.

Unfortunately, we cannot avoid this pain forever. It will eventually surface and we will have to face it and when we are forced to do it, it will hurt more than it would have hurt initially. When we live from a place of self-leadership, we are willing to acknowledge the pain that we will feel when we have a difficult conversation or seek forgiveness or hold someone accountable. This is true courage.

It is always worth approaching pain and vulnerability with courage. It is amidst the pain that we learn and grow. It is amidst the pain where we gain the confidence to know that we can handle anything that life throws our way.

Is there something in your life that you have been avoiding because you know it is going to cause pain to face it? What would it take for you to be willing to sit with that pain? What support do you need in order to feel safe enough to lean in?