Welcome to Interwoven Courage. This blog is about courage, one of the traits of being instead of just existing. The simple difference between the two is being means fully alive to every moment of life and driven by purpose and vision. It includes having a solid and realistic life direction, service to others and self, and confidence in the meaningful investment of time. Existing is controlled by emotions, feelings, idols, social media, and appetites. It is also self-centered, directionless, and easily influenced. This results in doing what the world wants you to do and wasting time, our most valuable resource. This is wonderfully articulated by Aristotle: ”I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hard victory is over self.”
Courage, in the context of “Always Advancing: Choosing Courage, Strength and Honor,” has seven characteristics that I would like to share in two parts. Part One will outline the characteristics of Strength, Fear, Grit, and Sacrifice as separate blogs. Part Two will outline the characteristics of Focus, Love, and Hope as separate blogs. These characteristics enhance our ability to experience courage in all aspects of life. How do we do that? Through practice. Practice is a necessary and mostly conscious action of mind, body, and spirit that interweaves, harmonizes if you prefer, something new that we have learn or enhances elements of self that are already present. I like the word interwovenness because when something is interwoven, it is stronger than the sum of its parts. Let’s explore these characteristics.
What do I mean by Strength? Strength is the cornerstone for the other characteristics. Strength, then, is a continuous development of mind, body, and spirit. These three are interwoven into a single focus from which our full potential can be realized. I will often refer to this as the triad. It is important to understand that this triad is not based on some ideal of mind, body, and spirit. We are all unique beings and face many challenges through life. The interwoven triad refers to what we each have and exploiting that to the max. For example, some people have bodily challenges. That does not disqualify anyone from developing a fullness through interwovenness. Our interwoven being has the amazing capacity to adapt and overcome almost any challenge or obstacle.
Let’s start with the body to understand the essences that augments strength. We are all probably familiar with developing strength of body. The body is amazing and has resiliencies that we may not fully appreciate. The body, as with the other elements of the triad, needs attention to facilitate maximum efficiency for interwovenness. There is exercise, nutrition, maintenance, and measurement. Maintenance refers to hygiene, regular medical exams, and adjustments such as medication if needed. Measurement is checking in to see if I’m improving, regressing, or staying the same. The one thing to remember about measurement is degrees of change related to any goals. My suggestion is to pay attention to the small gains or regressions. This will help with implementing changes when they can be most effective.
The key, as mentioned earlier in this blog, is practice. In the case of body, a regular routine of physical exercise, activity, and a healthy diet when you can. Again, we are talking about your unique abilities and desires. In other words, do what works for you. Do not hesitate to seek out a mentor or model for ideas and to help with maintaining discipline. We are unique beings living in unique circumstances and cultures. We are also designed for relationships. Discipline is a mindset to stick with it. You’re probably thinking, “I know this, but I don’t have the discipline to maintain this over the long haul.” This is where a dilemma surfaces. We need to practice to increase strength, and we need strength to increase practice efficiencies. If I try to solve this dilemma with just mind, or just spirit, or just body, I will make little progress and probably give up. The interwovenness of mind, body, and spirit is where the complete power and energy of who we truly are manifests to solve this dilemma and help us increase discipline, learn from failure, and celebrate successes.
If there are challenges with strength of body, it does not mean a lesser degree of overall interwovenness. I want to be clear, again, that mind, body, and spirit harmonized together is a unique experience because we are uniquely and wonderfully made. It many times means that developing strength of body is very challenging. But the effort must be made to develop this strength regardless of real or perceived limitations. Bottomline, you are stronger than you may think of feel.
We need to add to body the other parts of the triad which are mind and spirit. Just remember we are operating in the context of “Always Advancing: Choosing Courage, Strength and Honor,” and in that model mind, body, and spirit are unique aspects of our humanness. If they are not in harmony, it may result in incongruencies manifested as depression, worry, anxieties, and other disturbances. This is not referring to conditions that might be genetic or a diagnosed disorder. It is referring to situational disturbances that do impact our ability to make good choices because we are incongruent with our interwoven, true self. I will explain this in more detail in the blog containing information regarding identity. Interwovenness is sourced in our identity, our true self.
The second element of the triad is mind. The mind is incredible and powerful in the state of interwovenness. But in isolation it fatigues easily. Mind is our thinking self mostly sourced in the neurology of the brain and the brain is much more than just thinking. The mind is experienced as will power, discipline, processing information into knowledge, solving problems, and decision-making to name a few. Each time we learn something new or apply existing knowledge, the mind becomes enhanced with this new or updated information. I like to think of the mind as what gives us the capability to understand this space-time dimension, navigate ambiguities, solve problems, define alternatives, and much more.
In this present era there is a lot of attention and focus on the mind. Our western education system is primarily mind oriented. In fact, we rank individuals, communities, states, and nations by achievement scores. Many people take their identity completely from the mind isolated from body and spirit. Rene Descartes stated, “Cogito, ergo sum.” Translated into English that would be, “I think, therefore I am.” In the context of interwovenness, this is very limiting and one-dimensional. But our present era has made this a mantra that motivates and drives many people. This sometimes results in self- obsession and any number of problematic mind conditions and experiences. Please understand that I think the mind is amazing. My point is that it can be even more amazing when harmonized with body and spirit.
The mind in all its wonder, however, can be deceived easily outside of the triad, especially under stress and duress. As mentioned earlier, the mind also fatigues easily. Many who have experienced prolonged endurance, perseverance, resilience, and strength testing or real-life events, in retrospect, report only using roughly 40% of their total potential. This realization was a result of these same people being taught how to approach all challenges with a holistic and interwoven mindset and action set.
Why is it that appearances suggest only a few people can activate this interwoven system somewhat naturally? My understanding from personal experiences, reading many books, and studies is there are two primary reasons. The first reason has to do with nature nurture. Nature is what we are conceived and born with as humans.
Nurture is who and what directs our development over time. An example of that would be rites of passage. I think it is safe to say, at least for the United States, that rites of passage have all but disappeared from our culture. These rites of passage are so very important to the young in getting to know themselves, their families, and their communities at progressive levels, building interwovenness along the way. Rites of passage also help the young identify their current capabilities. This is identity building on several levels. Social media for many has replaced rites of passage and this is where questionable identities are developed that lead to potential long term life issues.
The second reason is interwoven being is not taught in most schools, especially public schools. The only place the young can get teaching and instruction regarding their full potential is through parents, caregivers, mentors, and models. Now there are the good, bad, and ugly of all these sources. Trusted and wise guides are needed to shepherd the young in the ways of true identity, justice, respect, courage, and healthy self-esteem. It is difficult to get this type of wisdom from a peer group at a young age The reason is a lack of life experiences.
As with strength of body, there are many that face challenges with mind. But the same process holds true. The mind must be challenged and nurtured continuously in order to be interwoven with the other two. Again, we are unique individuals, and this harmonization presents differently in each of us. Interwovenness should not be a point of comparison one to another. It should be a point of respect and admiration for its uniqueness. Activities of mind development are almost unlimited.
Finally, what is meant by strength of spirit? In the context of “Always Advancing: Choosing Courage, Strength and Honor,” spirit also contains the concept of heart which will be expanded on in a future blog. A simple definition of spirit might be that force and power, within all humans and animals, that cannot be sourced in anything related to physical aspects. There are confirmed reports from around the world of amazing feats performed by normal people that cannot be explained any other way but as the power of an unseen spirit or force. It is something that comes from outside us yet is a vital part of our humanness. I’m a Christian. The Christian belief system and philosophy is an example of a spiritual reality to life now and for eternity. Everything I think, feel, do, and say is processed through this belief system and philosophy. This too matures over time through life experiences. Our identities are built on what we believe. Interwovenness is an outcome of our identities. If you have not explored what you believe at your core, I encourage you to do so. You will learn something important about what lenses you see the world through.
Another way of looking at this is heart. There are many who embrace that the physical heart is a connecting and channeling point of our holistic selves. It is what connects us to everything else. An example of this that has been reported repeatedly over time around the world is a mother’s connection with a son or daughter. There are reported and confirmed cases of mothers experiencing knowledge of events as they happen to her children, sometimes in a different part of the world.
There is some science behind this which I will expand on in a later blog. But for now, heart/spirit is real and can be experienced by practicing interwovenness. One way I practice this is through my Christian faith which embraces mind, body, and spirit. My belief is all humans have some sort of spirit. Other cultures and belief systems will add animals, plants, etc. You may not have applied any thought to this or maybe you are haunted by trying to hold it with science. For now, let’s just stay with the concept of spirit as a third element of uniqueness and power that is part of humanness that harmonizes with the other two. And this interwovenness amplifies our strength to amazing levels.
The process for interweaving mind, body, and spirit will be detailed in a later blog. For now, however, the practice of mindfulness is a good place to start. There are many mindfulness methods and practices. Most mindfulness methods and practices are concerned with experiencing the present more than the past or future. The present is the only place where we make choices and changes. I like the Occam’s razor philosophy which is, in my layman’s terms, the simplest method is probably the best one. In other words, choose a simple mindfulness practice to start. I will expand on practices of mindfulness that I embrace in future blogs.
Next up, understanding fear.