Courage is a much-trumpeted virtue and those who possess it often don't know they have it. Isn't it easy to look at people who have done seemingly impossible things and think, I could ever rise to such heights? Yet maybe courage also consists in carrying on doing difficult things, precisely when they are difficult, because they are the right things to do.

 

I'm thinking about, all the medical staff working so hard against Covid, parents doing their best to home school their children with insufficient resources, looking after a relative who needs support, dealing with our own, possibly life-threatening illnesses. All these situations require steady, daily, unrelenting Courage. 

 

Looks like the need is infinite! One thing that helps me when I think about these hard situations, is where the word comes from. It's from the Latin for 'heart' - 'cor' - which to me seems to tie it up nicely with all that's most important to us. 

 

So, 'Courage, mes braves!'

 

Then we have C for Calm, which might also go with Courage, but not always. When we're in a place of Calm, not upset, emotional or disturbed, even in the midst of difficulty, we can make better choices. It's almost always a bad idea to make a major decision when we are in the grip of any strong emotion, as our thinking brains are turned off at such times. 

 

We can get to a place of Calm by turning on the body's own inbuilt calm down system - basically the parasympathetic nervous system - and one way we can access this is by paying attention to our breathing. What's called 7-11 breathing is easy to do. Just breathe in for a count of 7 and out for a count of 11, several times. Simples!

 

You can find lots of apps that will talk you through some more ways to get and keep calm, for example - you guessed it! - Calm!

 

Now I dare to take on the topic of Consciousness! I am not going to say much, because a thousand lifetimes would not suffice, but there are a couple of things that I think could be useful to you. I'm currently studying an intriguing understanding called 'Three Principles'; fundamentally, the understanding of the Three Principles (Mind, Thought and Consciousness) is that our experience is created from the inside out by our thoughts, and the feelings we experience are a direct result of the quality of that thinking.

 

Just as we all have a bias towards good physical health, if we don’t interfere, so a cut finger heals up on its own, so also we have a bias towards good psychological health if we let the mind settle.

Think of a snow globe – you shake it up and there’s snow everywhere. To get it to clear you just leave it alone for a bit. You don’t go on courses about snow globe management, or try lots of different angles to make it settle faster, or look for a snow globe expert. You just realise its nature and know that you have to let it settle.

Thoughts are just that – thoughts – and in themselves they have no reality. We can frighten ourselves with all sorts of plausible stories, and when we see they are not true, and that thought is just what the mind does, there is great liberation.

I only want to whet your appetite today, so here‘s a good resource to read more. Meanwhile I leave you with this question – ‘If I didn’t believe everything I think, what would this open up for me?'

 

What do you think? Which C resonates with you today?