How to find the courage to follow your heart.

Courage is the most important component needed to follow your heart. One must be willing to risk being criticised, misunderstood or worse, ignored. For most, the prospect of this is too high, and so, fear wins the bid for their heart and they never truly experience the life they feel they were born for.

To us, here at Sister & Soul, that reality is really sad. We are passionate about women finding their spine, birthing  their dreams and discovering that they are more courageous than they thought. 

Being courageous is not an event, it's a lifestyle. 

As long as we live, courage continues to chant, beckoning us forward, pointing out possibilities. Once we realise that we may never feel ready and that our first efforts will not be our best, it becomes easier to make those initial steps. After you have made one brave step and have mastered where you are, courage will call again and you will have to risk more.  Never satisfied, courage relentlessly wants us to make bold moves. And as a result, we have to be prepared to do something badly, one, two, twenty times until we become better at it. 

However, there is great reward in getting over yourself, in being ok to look like a real doosh, in acting without the approval of those that don’t understand you or your dream. And that is, you get to honour your authentic self and cultivate a life you are excited to live.

You see, courage builds upon itself. Courage begets courage. One courageous act leads to another. It is tempting to believe that courage is about taking one giant leap, but in our experience, courage is the ability to keep on stepping. 

Holly Lisle put it this way, ‘Courage is nothing more than taking one step more than you think you can’.  The more we step, the more courage we have to keep stepping. The more we create, the bolder our creativity becomes. The more we try, the more we want to try again. Can you see how courage creates an expansive life?

Courage has given us many surreal moments; times so amazing and joyous, it feels like they existed in a dream. Do you want to be able to say, ‘Wait, did that really happen?’ ‘I never dreamt that I would be there, doing that, with them.’ 

We don't need to be busy to have a big life; we just need to be brave. 

For us, having courage looks like backing ourselves, trusting that your efforts will lead somewhere, trying again, being vulnerable, facing rejection, looking like a fool, taking risks, and continuing to expand. Courage starts with affirming ‘We are courageous’ even when we are shaking in our boots, and ends with no regrets. Being brave has always taken us to a spacious place that oddly feels unknown and like home all at once.

Here’s to you friend, and women like you who see their need to be brave and in their own unique way follow their beautiful hearts. If you need to be reminded daily that you are brave, check out our brave apparel and meaningful brave jewellery that was created to encourage women to take heart and be bold.

Photo by Sam Manns on Unsplash