Image by Ralf Ruppert
How do we find courage to take a stand for love and speak truth to power, when it’s challenging like hell? Most of us run from conflict and confrontation. Some play nice and avoid, hide out in denial, others like to judge and attack.
We tend to hold back our true voice, because we fear rejection. This will happen at times, no question.
How to find the nerve and grit to take a stand for love anyway? How do we grow courage to face down the BS, whether it’s in the form of abuse, violence, misuse of power, false prophets and perpetuated suffering?
Standing up is challenging, but it’s what’s needed in a time such as this. Fierceness and kindness are our best allies here.
Helpful Hints When Your World Is Rocked With Challenges
1. “Show me the way through”
I used this simple prayer. “Show me the way through”, especially in tough times and I was always shown a way.
With this prayer you get out of your usual way and invite in higher help. Then follow what is shown step-by-step. You’ll be surprised how even in an impossible situation a way emerges out of nowhere.
2. SOS Breath
Put your hands on your belly. Breathe in through your nose down into your belly, count four beats, hold the breath for four beats, and breathe out through the mouth four beats.
Do this for at least three rounds. It will calm your nervous system, and offers you grounding.
3. Calling in help and connecting with others
Please do yourself a favor and don’t follow the voice of shame by isolating yourself. Reach out to friends, other people and the holy ones. Let them know what you are going through, that you need support.
You may need a shoulder to cry on, to get wise counsel or practical help. Ask for what you need, and then be open to receive. Some people turn away or can’t help, but there are others whose door is wide open for you.
No one can save you from what you experience, but you do not need to go through it alone. It makes a difference, if we have at least one person to share and be with.
4. Taking care of yourself
In times of shock or hardship we need to tend to our bodies to have the strength to make it through. Eat and sleep well, don’t run yourself into the ground.
This takes a bit of discipline, because times of intensity often drive us into a constant state of urgency. This is panic taking hold. Stop, breathe and slow down. You have the time to eat a proper meal.
Engage in what is nourishing, it will give you the energy to deal with challenges constructively.
5. Surrendering challenges
Handing over a seemingly impossible situation is often the best move we can make. Give over the challenge, lay it at the altar, “I offer this situation into love’s power. Thank you for showing me a way that is for the highest good of all.” Use your own words.
It’s not asking a God in the clouds to fix our life, it’s a way of connecting to wisdom and allowing this to help and guide us.
6. What to do when fear drives you around
If you feel afraid and anxious, notice where it is held in your body. Stay present in your body, as you allow yourself to feel. Flood that sensation with plenty of breath.
Do not get lost in the endless stories fear likes to play with shaky conviction and intense ardor. Relate to your fear, as if you are meeting a child who is afraid. What does a little kid need, when all alone and scared? Someone bigger taking her hand, holding her and letting her know that she is safe. So you offer this by placing one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart. Speak to that little kid in you: “I am here for you.” This will help.
Make sure you move your body and do not follow the spinning thoughts around. Get back to ground zero by touching the earth, especially when a bomb drops into your life.
7. Speaking and standing up
It’s scary. It’s liberating. It can be of benefit. Acknowledge your fear and do it anyway. Ask yourself: “What’s bigger, more important that I am willing to stand for?” For some it is justice, for others it’s love.
Would you just walk by or open your mouth to protect a dog from being kicked sidewise? Will you be the one, who stands up when a girl is objectified and abused? Let fierce love move you to speak and stand for what needs your voice and action.
Take small steps in the beginning, courage grows as you walk through what you fear the most, again and again. After a while you get the hang of it and you’ll enjoy to bravely stand for life, no matter what happens as a result.
A meditation to deal with challenge
Put your feet on the ground. Become aware of your breath and body, your environment, the sounds and sights. Notice how the earth below is holding you; let your weight drop down. Breathe into your belly, in through the nose and out through the mouth. (Use the SOS breath if you are in fear.)
Allow yourself to drop down and widen into the space around you. Bring loving awareness, as you turn to the situation at hand. Say yes to the difficulty as it is right now. It does not mean you like it, it only means to disengage from the struggle.
Curiously, get to know the challenge, the fear, and the turmoil. Survey the landscape of the issue with awareness; look around to see clearly what is there, without judging it as right or wrong. Just get to know the whole situation. Turn your attention to your internal landscape. Become aware of any feelings, thoughts, and body sensations that arise in you without labeling them as good or bad.
Where do you contract? Where is energy held or stuck, less vital in your body? Just notice what you experience and drench it with breath. Allow all to be there without judging, trying to change it, fix it or getting lost in the mind trap of the stories we tell ourselves “about” it.
Feel what you are feeling. Maybe you need to cry, to shake... let it move and rip. Stay present even when the ride gets intense, it will subside like a wave that rises and dissipates. Just for one second open into your experience. Allow, as if you have a guest at your table, who is looking for your help.
Reach out and make friends by welcoming the challenge. This guest, if you listen closely, will tell you what the opportunity is for you. Be open to hear what you do not know. Relate from the wise woman or man to this feeling or situation. Give it attentiveness and ask inwardly for wisdom and guidance. Then hand the whole thing over: “I place this situation into Thy hands. Let the highest best happen. Thank you.”
Be curious how love shows you a way through the challenge and leads you into a least expected victory.
Love knows the way through heaven and hell.
Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Adapted with permission.
Article Source:
BOOK: Love Unleashed
Love Unleashed: How to Rise in a World on the Edge
by Nicola Amadora Ph.D.
Urging us to plunge into the depths and heights of love to turn the tide in our lives and this world, this book unleashes a grounded, enlivened path of spirituality for these wild times. You are invited into true adventure stories, refined practices and juicy wisdom teachings.
Guiding you to realize and embody the fountain of love's presence in the muck and beauty, here on Earth and with each other now. For the sake of all beings - savor deeply, connect intimately and live the greatest love story ever told!
For more info and/or to order this book, click here. Also available as a Kindle edition.
About the Author
Nicola Amadora PhD. teaches a refreshingly real and embodied way of spirituality to unleash love for the great turning in our lives and this world. For three decades she has been guiding thousands of people as a Spiritual Teacher, Psychologist, Author, and Speaker worldwide. She is the Founder of Living Connection and The Deep Feminine Way and the author of ‘Nothing but Love,’ truth poetry straight from the heart.
When she isn’t teaching, she loves to write and rides horses in the wild. If you want to know about her labor of love find Nicola in one of her books, on the web, or in the streets of this world smiling at you with a twinkle in her eyes.
Visit the author's website at: NicolaAmadora.com
