Courage

Hello Everyone, well I am sorry I haven't blogged since last Wednesday. What happened to me? I just got heat-stroke I think. How hot is it where you are? It has been like 98 degrees everyday here.

Today we are talking about:

We derive courage from facing and moving through our fears.

Wow. I can certainly talk about this from experience. I have struggled with fear so much of my life. I left highschool with hardly any self-esteem or confidence at all and it has been tough! Actually I got married right after college and was able to defer some of my fears until my divorce 19 years later. Then there was no one to buffer my fears and I was on my own.

One of the most helpful tools for me was the book Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers.

This book is great for getting past your fears as well as living a very full life.

One of my favorite points in the book is similar to our saying. That we will never get over our fears unless we face them. Also everyone has fears and everytime we reach new experiences we will have fear to face all over again.

Jeffers also talks about not letting fear contract your life. I did that for most of my life. Here is a small example. When I was under 12 years old, we belonged to a community pool. In order to swim in the deep end, you needed to pass the pool test which was 2 laps lenghwise of the pool. Well I was afraid to swim and my friends would play in the deep end and I was alone.

Why was I afraid? Because when I was real little (6 years old perhaps), I had to take swim lessons at the YMCA and I cheated. I would pretend to swim but really have my tip toes on the bottom of the pool. I fooled the teachers by staying in the middle of the class as went back and forth across the shallow end of the pool. But when it came time for us all to jump in the deep end (12 feet)and swim, I refused. (I wasn't stupid!) I was pushed in. Down, down, down I went to the bottom....and stayed there till the teacher jumped in and got me. I failed the class...no "little guppy" award for me. And I was terrified of not touching the bottom of the pool.

So I would not learn to swim...I would watch my friends play without me.

Well, one summer when I was 12, I was able to attend a camp in New England. I hated it with a passion, but I did learn to swim. How? Well, there were anchored floats in this mountain lake that we had to get to....no problem... I could tippy-toe right?

Well, I did. And when I got up on the float, I had leeches on the bottom of my feet!!!!! Yes, real live black slimy leeches. They were on the bottom of the lake.

So I learned to keep my feet OFF the bottom of the lake. I faced my fear and learned to swim. When I got home, I went directly to the community pool and passed that pool test with flying colors. I have not been afraid to swim ever since. (Still not thrilled about leeches though).

More about courage, tomorrow!

Stay cool,

LA