"All serious daring starts from within."
Harriet Beecher Stowe
To build your courage, start from within. An excellent way to begin doing this is the courage walk.
You can build up your courage from within by regularly going on Courage Walks. The courage walk helps build up your inner strength in three important ways. First of all, it involves going on a walk. This perfect exercise tones your body, cleans your lungs, and strengthens your heart. It is a perfect exercise for many of us because it can be done anywhere, for your entire life.
Secondly, the Courage Walk clears away the clutter in your brain. In effect, it serves to perform a brain reboot. Sometimes, a computer can build up an excessive number of programs in its RAM. This memory is for short-term, temporary use. It is not used for long- term memory, which is stored on the hard drive. This RAM can get overwhelmed by running too many programs all at once, and cause your computer to crash. When this happens, a simple reboot of the computer will clear the RAM, and the computer will function normally once again. In a similar fashion, your brain also benefits from clearing out the clutter of random, petty, miscellaneous thoughts. The Courage Walk helps you performs this vital function, allowing you to reset and re-calibrate your brain.
Finally, the Courage Walk strengthens your spirit. It makes your thoughts, and your soul, more resilient. It helps your creativity. The Courage Walk makes you stronger in body, mind, and spirit. Here's how the Courage Walk is performed.
First, go on a walk. On your walk, clear your thoughts by focusing on your breathing. You can focus on your breathing in many different ways. One simple way is to breathe in for 4 steps, hold your breath for 4 steps, then breath out for 4 steps. Another method to help you focus on your breathing is to talk a deep, deep breath. Hold it. then let it out slowly. The main thing is just to focus on your breathing.
Now, imagine breathing in healthy energy and letting it fill up your entire body. Imagine taking the energy in when you inhale. As you inhale, imagine your body becoming full of positive, beautiful colors. Many people imagine themselves becoming more full of a bright, warm light. The molecules of your body resonate with harmonious, positive life. Your aura builds up a stronger glow. Now exhale, and imagine negative energy leaving you through the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet. The toxins are being released. Negativity flows out easily as you exhale.
Let your aura, your inner light become so strong that absolutely nothing can diminish it, harm it, or overcome it. Your aura is so powerful, it reaches out to others, affecting them in a positive, healthy way. This light is your (good) force, helping you, helping others, and strengthening the universe.
Now, let all of the color leave your body. Every time you inhale, every time you exhale, the glow grows less and less until finally nothing is left. Imagine your body as completely invisible, completely gone.... yet your spirit remains. You are greater than your body. Your spirit is something greater than the physical world, and therefore nothing in the physical world can diminish, harm, or destroy your spirit.
Continue to meditate on filling your body with a brilliant light, then releasing all of the light. Imagine building up the spirit within your body, and then imagine your spirit as greater than just your body. Fill your body full of healthy energy, yet realize that while your body is temporary, your spirit is something greater.
Your Courage Walk is now over. Your brain has been rebooted. Your heart, your lungs, and your muscles all have been re- energized. Your inner glow, your aura has grown in strength and brilliance, just like a fire that has just been stoked. Finally, you have reaffirmed that your spirit is greater than your body, that life is much more than just the physical world.
SUMMARY: BUILD COURAGE WITH THE COURAGE WALK
* Go on a walk and focus on your breathing
* Breathe in positive energy and exhale negative energy
* Imaging your aura so bright and strong that nothing can diminish its glow
* Now, imagine your spirit and your entire being as invisible to the world, and unaffected by earthly concerns
Published by Tom Heston MD 3/13/2012
Tom Heston MD is a Johns Hopkins trained physician who practices clinical medicine in the Pacific Northwest.
