Courage to Brave the Wilderness

Courage to Brave the Wilderness

In the words of Brené Brown in her book Braving the Wilderness, she embraces the wilderness as ‘the quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone’.  These words of wisdom which Brown shares throughout this book came into my life at the exact time I found myself in my own wilderness. I believe in divine timing and this really was the case when I delved into this wonderment of the human capacity for courage, vulnerability and empathy.  The aspect which is most compelling from the research Brown offers the world is her ability to courageously be honest about the depths of shame and the way it shapes human conditioning. Brown’s concept of shame and how it plays out in different avenues of life, really resonated with me on a soul level.  It felt like delving into Pandora’s box were everything is brought to the surface and when you dig that deep, you have to rely on hope to help navigate you out, as once you are on this journey, the deeper you dig into your internal world and begin to understand the conditioning and the patterns, you have to take personal responsibility to move through the wilderness and out into the light. There are no more excuses.  If you want to move forward you need to be honest, have the courage and be kind with yourself as you reform your internal world.  This research for me gave light to something that is played out in all walks of life and can be seen through all ages of time, but now there is a language, which has been...
Positive Courage

Positive Courage

What does Positive Psychology say about Courage? Earlier philosophers state how courage is an essential virtue which floats between cowardice and rashness (Aristotle, 350 BCE/1999).  The changing face of courage has shifted from support for a diminishing cause viewed as heroic, to a non adaptive method of thinking (Barczewski, 2008; Knight & Saal, 1986). Primary courage research advocates that the process of courage entails overriding one emotion over another for example love, honour, and duty would overcome anger. Researchers have further commented on the topic by implementing that is one is labelled as courageous it steers them towards personal growth (Finfgeld, 1999). With other stating that courageous behaviours lead to self confidence and selfless love leading to repetition of courageous behaviours (Castro, 2006). In addition it is proven by research that courageous behaviours benefits others by kindness (Faigin-Jones & Midlarsky, 2007; Pury & Kowalski, 2007) and altruistic Positive Psychology incorporates courage into the Values in Action category as a bravery virtue meaning that you persevere, finishing ones tasks, integrity and acquiring positive energy for your task at hand (Pury & Kawalski, 2007). Measuring courage within the Positive Psychology is completed within the Values in Action inventory of strengths VIA-IS, (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) How can Positive Psychology Practitioners use Courage? Researchers state that believing in ones courage actually boosts courageous behaviours building upon ones self perception (Boyd and Ross, 1994). Others suggest that identifying ones self as a courageous person cultivates self growth (Finfgeld, 1999). In addition others propose a battlemind model of courage advocating courageous actions that cultivate self confidence and selfless love (Castro, 2006). The battlemind model...