This is What Courage Looks Like to Me by Rev. Deanna Hollas
Courage is not the absence of fear, courage is being able to take action in the midst of fear. Fear is a normal healthy response to danger, and it is important we don’t try to ignore it and pretend everything is fine when it isn’t. Our bodies will still hold the fear and it is not healthy for our bodies to be in a constant state of ready alert, scanning for danger.
Courage is being able to take intentional, purposeful action while at the same time being afraid. Courage is choosing non-violence in the face of violence.
There are seven essentials that must be part of my daily life in order for me to be courageous and fit to serve in the work God has called me to do. I invite you to join me in these practices to see, too, if you grow in your courage.
Breath, Welcome, Transform: This is a spiritual practice that helps me expand my capacity to be uncomfortable. This happens by getting in touch with and welcoming the uncomfortable sensations that arise in my body whenever I feel threatened. I use belly breathing and the breath prayer “Welcome Holy, Spirit, Hold All with Compassion” to keep my body’s fight or flight response from taking over as I welcome and hold with compassion all that is within me.
Fuel: Our bodies are a temple and it matters what goes into them. I eat a whole-food, plant-based diet to be the best I can be. There are several reasons for this, but when it comes to having courage, researched have discovered that the anxiety and stress animals experience is stored in their muscles (just like us). Therefore, when we eat meat, we are bringing into our bodies these animals’ stress and anxiety hormones. Caring for my temple means limiting my intake of sugar, alcohol, caffeine and oil.
Movement and Strength Training: We know that trauma and stress get stored in our bodies. Movement and strength training allow us to move this toxics energy and release if from our bodies. This allows us to better open and connect with the fundamental life energy that is inside all of us.
Sleep: This is critically important for brain health. Lack of sleep can increase anxiety, which is counter-productive to being courageous.
Nature: God outside and connect with the earth by walking barefoot, working in your garden, or hugging a tree. Grounding our energy to the Earth can reduce pain and inflammation, decrease muscle tension, lower stress, and help improve sleep.
Gratitude: It is a fact of neuroscience that the brain cannot be in a state of gratitude and a state of fear at the same time. The two states may alternate, but they are mutually exclusive. In his book What Happy People Know, Dr. Dan Baker writes that during active appreciation or gratitude, the threatening and anxious messages from the brain’s amygdala and brainstem are cut off, suddenly and surely. When these thoughts can’t access the brain’s neocortex, these anxious thoughts can’t fester and replicate themselves; they can’t turn our stream of thoughts into a cold river of dread.
Fun and Creativity: Laugh every day. Laugh every day even when it does not happen organically. You can make laugher a practice my taking two minutes to laugh intentionally. Sing, dance, listen to or make music. Darkness cannot survive in the light.
Rev. Deanne Hollas is the co-founder of Retreat House. She currently serves as the Gun Violence Prevention Ministry Coordinator with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. She created a mindfulness practice - Breathe, Welcome, Transform - which is offered every Monday at 1 p.m. though Retreat House.
Deanna graduated from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in 2015 with a Master of Divinity. She was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in July 2019. Deanna also has a Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction from San Francisco Theological Seminary.