Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

We know that love and unity are beautiful ideals, but the question remains: How do we get there?

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If it wasn’t for bravery, I would never know the joy of moving past each inner barrier within me. Barriers that I had no idea were self-imposed limitations until each edge was challenged. If it wasn’t for bravery, I never would have spoken up for myself, boldly declaring how much the individual within me matters, equally and uniquely throughout a sea of self-expression.

If it wasn’t for bravery, how else would I have mustered the courage to move in the direction of inspired resonant desire? If it wasn’t for bravery, my humility would have stagnated in shame, simmering in a pot of bubbling despair, due to all the potential I was once afraid of somehow getting wrong.

For all these reasons and more, I honor the attribute of bravery for all the ways it has helped me make the type of inspired choices that reminds me of the true hero living in every heart awaiting activation. A hero that comes to life, once decisions are made from a depth of unwavering inner value without needing to compromise any degree of ethics in order to have what you want.

As bravery has so clearly taught me, things don’t have to always be comfortable in order to be the right direction to explore. In fact, they seldom are. While discomfort isn’t always necessary as proof of inner growth, there remains a transformation underway whenever discomfort surfaces.

It is not a pain letting you know you’ve ventured off path, but a confirmation that you are in the process of rescuing your most hurt and helpless parts from each hiding spot of despair.

Such an emotional rescue mission occurs once ready to exchange the insatiable hunger of ego for a chance to be guided in life by the boldest and bravest wisdom waiting for permission to lead your way.

The question remains, when will you allow the power of bravery to navigate your choices?

When will you allow bravery to make its wisest decisions through you without a need to negotiate?

When will you enter the mystery of life, not needing to know where life may be headed, since the only way to find your destiny is allowing your highest honor and ethics to do the choosing?

When will the real sacrifice of not stepping into your bravery be recognized as all the time spent putting off “big decisions”, which only feel uncertain to the one always needing something to compare, contrast, and contemplate?

Perhaps you are reading these words recognizing how boldly bravery has orchestrated this fateful meeting with you. Maybe this was the plan all along, with each moment in time sequenced in such a precise way to ensure you would see, hear, and feel the invitation bravery is sending you right now. What if, no matter how unready, unworthy, or unprepared you may feel, bravery stands peacefully present with the unwavering faith of knowing what you are now ready to explore within yourself and throughout the world around you? A chance to move in a direction where unconditional love is no longer hidden in the pockets of those you insist on earning it back from, but an opportunity to remember the love that comes alive within you, the more often it is recognized, embraced, and honored?

As you enter into a brand-new chapter of your most profound expansion, may the following book excerpt from All for Love: The Transformative Power of Holding Space act as your new guiding light.

May it help you turn inward toward all the parts begging to be faced with a love only your kindness and compassion may convey.

May each insight help you transform patterns of fear into waves of excitement as only the attribute of bravery can do. Knowing the immeasurable depth of bravery is one of ten essential attributes needed to access the healing potential and embodied consciousness that I refer to as the transformative power of holding space. A power so direct, precise, and bold, it exists as the very evolutionary force awakening in every heart to reverse the momentum of a dying planet at the rate in which you open up and align with truth in the most compelling and heart-centered way. Your next bold step forward awaits you. As a roadmap of success and a wise companion for your journey ahead, here are the potent words that bravery wishes for you to know right now.

[Excerpt from All for Love: The Transformative Power of Holding Space, courtesy of Sounds True]

The Attribute of Bravery

Through the attribute of bravery, you can move through the discomfort of “what is” without anything to defend, maintain, argue, negotiate, or avoid. As you begin to see how inevitable encounters with pain help you unravel your fear of it, you will be better able to hold unwavering space for yourself and others as you survive dire circumstances.

As your relationship with fear and pain become more heart-centered, your awareness will help you see beyond the categories of like or dislike, which will make facing “what is” more tolerable than you’d ever imagined.

When bravery leads the way, it instinctively provides you with the strength, endurance, grace, and tenacity to overcome the plight of discomfort. Through this attribute, your fear of the unknown will no longer rattle your senses or stifle your ego. Rather, it will help the ego let go of its deeply engrained belief in control. This transforms the realm of the unknown into something curious, intriguing, and even exciting instead of being so overwhelming to process.

In order to go where the ego has never truly gone, it is essential to choose as you’ve never chosen before.

This also means you will more than likely have to feel what you’ve never felt before—all within a reality of greater support and renewed perspective where you have everything to welcome and nothing to avoid. As you hold greater space during moments of discomfort, you are gathering key pieces of evidence to remind you of how strong, capable, and ready you are to face pain and fear. In gaining more time to notice your true resilience, even when life doesn’t offer experiences worth accepting, you’ll develop an even greater sense of bravery that will help you rise from the ashes of defeat, devastation, and despair. By cultivating the at- tribute of bravery, you’ll really be present with yourself, while becoming an even stronger source of companionship for the people you choose to support.

From a space-holding perspective, the emotional pain that you must face reflects the visceral intensity of transformation in progress. Whether you’re clearing out a deeply lodged layer of emotional debris or witnessing the active expansion of a newly awakening consciousness, the very sensation of discomfort confirms the existential growing pains of your evolving healing journey.

Even when the ego hears this, it can wonder, Well, is there any way to make it less intense? While it’s natural to wonder this, it’s important to recognize that healing occurs as a ratio of time versus intensity. For the journey to be easier, it would require more time. If that happened, though, your ego would become in- censed at how slowly life moves along. On the other hand, to be on the most progressive path that offers comprehensive healing, the journey can include reoccurring waves of intensity as your most direct pathway of completion. Since the attribute of bravery helps you overcome the discomfort of “what is,” such a high intensity journey can quickly become an exciting opportunity to move beyond each personal limit.

Since the ego often personifies itself as a protector, it is important to remember that it only attempts to shield you from the circumstances and outcomes you continually fear.

As you confront each one bravely, you’ll find fewer situations to be afraid of, even perhaps discovering how less frightening each moment can be when you face “what is” instead of imagining “what if.” Such a definitive shift ultimately leaves your ego with no one to coddle, convince, or control. This causes the ego to meet the inevitability of its own demise, unaware that what it perceives as death is actually a doorway to eternal rebirth. Through the attribute of bravery, your ability to hold space compassionately releases the ego from its belief in control, which allows such a profound moment of letting go to occur.

As I wrote in The Universe Always Has a Plan, “You are not the one who lets go. You are the one being let go of.” This means that while many people attempt to let go as if it’s a willful process, it is actually a rather spontaneous unfolding of being released from the ego’s grip, once it sees control as nothing more than an idea it once believed in.

Ironically, the ego, which is the only part of you in a constant battle against the threat of “what is,” doesn’t actually know what it’s fighting or avoiding beyond its belief in frightening ideas. While the nature of each circumstance highlights uninterruptible milestones of healing, you do possess the power to determine how insightful or intolerable any moment can be. Through the attribute of bravery, you no longer wait for a perfect sign from the Universe to face what’s already happening or meant to occur. Instead, your ability to hold space helps you enter the next highest level in your journey even when it presents itself as the very situation you had hoped to avoid.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

When facing “what is,” all too often, whatever the ego can’t control represents what we believe could possibly go wrong. In fact, just because the ego thinks a situation has gone awry doesn’t mean you’ve made a mistake or engaged in any wrongdoing. Beyond moments of abuse (which always require swift action in the name of your sovereignty and safety), we commonly perceive unfairness from others when the ego doesn’t get its way. As another form of irony, even if the ego constantly got its way, it would be no happier than before.

Since the ego commonly perceives pain as a barrier to happiness, it insists that only in pain’s absence can true happiness exist. In truth, happiness is an extension of aliveness. Aliveness is the will to live. The more you say yes to living on life’s unpredictable terms, the more happiness you may experience. While it’s beyond the ego’s capacity to imagine how happiness and pain can coexist in the same field of reality, it’s never beyond your awareness to appreciate how freeing painful experiences can be, even when they show up as unwelcomed moments of intensity.

From the ego’s perspective, the question of what could possibly go wrong also includes the triggering of deep vulnerabilities since it sees feelings of sensitivity as a weakness that increases the threat of rejection. In reality, the more you are stripped of your defenses and rendered helpless by the hands of fate, the greater the likelihood of establishing intimate connections. Perhaps the ego considers vulnerability a weakness because it has no access to the attribute of bravery that makes it a gift instead of a curse. This is why you are such a vital part of your healing journey, not only as the one who experiences evolutionary change but as the space holder who has access to the very bravery that allows facing “what is” to unfold with grace.

When not getting your way is no longer proof of bad luck, a karmic setback, evidence of a low vibration, or any other kind of judgment, you will leap across the threshold of victimhood into a renewed depth of empowerment.

While the ego believes, I’d be much more open, if only things were different, it is the attribute of bravery that reminds you that there will never be a better time to lean into pain or face discomfort than at the moment it begins. Whether such experiences bring out the worst in others, lead to fights among family members in crisis, widen a wedge of discord in relationships, or even create unexpected loss—you can face each circumstance with your highest values and deepest strengths intact when fueled by the power of your own unwavering support. All that is required is a willingness to be brave, even while holding space for the aspects of self that know of no other way but to be afraid.

It is also important to remember that there is no wrong way to be brave. There are simply moments of courageous resolve that may not go as planned. Isn’t that okay? Isn’t it okay, even when a strong response of dislike makes unwelcomed change seem like something that shouldn’t be happening. Isn’t it okay that the ego can think, imagine, or conclude anything it wants without pre- venting you from taking the very steps that only seem scary the more you delay the inevitable?

Imagine holding a frightened child in your arms who says, “I’m too scared to keep going.” Through the attribute of bravery, you can say, “I really know how you feel, but we can only find true safety in moving forward.”

While many people insist they aren’t brave enough to face looming hardships, frustrations, or discomforts, it is the facing of these uncomfortable experiences, no matter how fearful we may be, that brings our deepest bravery to life.

Setting an Intention for Bravery

To release any fear of pain and patterns of avoidance and hold a space of bravery for yourself and others, please repeat the following words out loud:

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You may also enjoy reading Transformation & Collaboration: Redefining the Law of Attraction, by Matt Kahn.