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Hello hello, this is Sabrina Amina and I'm the host of the Feelings Pod.

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Today's episode is on courage and confidence and how to cultivate greater confidence.

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So I've been reflecting this week on where does confidence come from and where does courage

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come from and I invite you to ask yourself this week or I invite you to just get curious

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about the stories that you tell about yourself.

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So the stories that we tell about ourselves, these stories that build our identity are

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sometimes we grow very attached to these stories and I hear it all the time.

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I hear people say things like, oh I don't have the confidence to do that.

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I don't have the confidence to apply for that job or wear that dress and those may not be

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the exact words but it's something to that effect.

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So I think first of all one of the really important ways to build confidence is to be

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more in action, to move away from like incessant thinking, thinking about the thing that you

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want to do, find a way to take action if there's something that you want to do.

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I've been noticing a lot of conversations this week about folks who talk about, oh I

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would love to do this thing, you know, passion projects or hobbies or just things that light

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you up.

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That, you know, we make excuses like, oh I just don't have time or oh I, you know, I'm

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too old or you know, whatever the excuse is, whatever the story is.

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We can do these things in small ways.

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You don't have to tackle the whole project.

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And this is true for myself as well.

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Ever since I was little I've been in awe of surfing and there's just something about

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riding waves that I find really enchanting and so that's my challenge is this summer

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is to move in the direction of having some kind of surfing experience.

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So I'm not necessarily going to become a pro surfer overnight but you know, like maybe

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I'll find a class or you know, maybe if taking a class or having a surf lesson, excuse me,

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if having a surf lesson feels out of reach or feels like a big step then even just like

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compiling images or looking at videos of surfers or how-to videos on YouTube, those are small

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actions in that direction.

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What are you surrounding yourself with?

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What are you immersing yourself in?

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And if there's something like that you feel like is taking up a majority of your time,

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often the excuses like work or kids, like those are simply the stories we tell ourselves

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that keep us in the loop of our perpetual patterns, right?

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So it's important that we bring our attention to the little things that we do day in and

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day out and see where can we create some wiggle room to take action on those things that seem

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a little too far out of reach.

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And I'd argue that maybe one of the ingredients for that is building our confidence and how

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do we build our confidence?

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It's not by waiting for some magical confidence fairy to come and tap us on the head with

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her magical fairy wand and give us some confidence.

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Confidence really comes from taking action.

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Confidence comes from tuning in to the moments where you're fearful, really having a mindful

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awareness around where fear comes up in your life.

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And maybe it's not like active terror.

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When I say fear, fear shows up in a lot of ways.

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And sometimes fear is masked by disdain.

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Sometimes fear is masked by jealousy.

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You'll see somebody doing the thing that deep, deep, deep, deep down you've always wanted

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to do and you'll just kind of scoff or perhaps put down something or someone else that's

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doing it.

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So take some kind of small action.

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Move towards the thing that feels like, oh, I can't do this thing.

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And then also, this is something that comes up for me often is applying for things, applying

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for a job, applying for like an art show or asking for something, making a vulnerable

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ask.

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These are all things that take courage because why?

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Because when we move towards the thing that we want, there's always this fear that it's

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not available to me or I'll fail or someone will say no or I won't get it.

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And you know what?

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It takes courage to face the possibility of someone saying no.

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It takes courage for you to recognize, oh, I have some fears about this.

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I have some insecurities around this.

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I have some doubts about myself here, but I'm going to do it anyway.

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Cultivating courage is not about like inherently being a really brave, courageous person.

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Cultivating courage is noticing where is fear alive in me?

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When does that come up for me?

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When I bring enough awareness to my fears to turn towards them courageously.

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Courage doesn't exist.

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Courage only exists in the face of challenge and in the face of the things that activate

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our fears.

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And the more we put ourselves into a practice of turning towards our fear, rather than I

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really don't like the word fear less, I prefer fear facing because none of us are fearless.

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The fearlessness is if there were no fears, then there's really no courage, right?

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Challenge is the act of facing fear, overcoming a challenge, or at least attempting to.

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And then knowing, having this trust, having this trust in yourself that you can face whatever

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the outcome.

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But a lot of times, because of our fears, because we think we don't have the courage

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or we think we don't have what it takes or we think we're not good enough or smart enough

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or talented enough, we're afraid to get confirmation of our fears, of our self-doubts.

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What if I have this deep dark fear that I'm not good enough?

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And then I take the risk and then it doesn't work out.

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And then it just confirmation that I'm not good enough.

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Well, no, it's confirmation that you are courageous enough to take that step.

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It's confirmation that you're building your fear-facing muscles.

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So again, I invite you to notice where the fear comes up in your life, even if it's just

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a short experiment just for this week.

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Get curious about what are the things that deep down, like you really want, but you kind

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of shut down those desires because something in you tells you that's not realistic.

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I can't do that.

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Experiment with that experiment with somehow disrupting the patterns of your day-to-day

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life that keep you in a loop and keep you in this place of fear.

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The thing about fear is it has the most control over us when we're not even willing to acknowledge

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it.

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So when we shed light on those fears, we're facing it, right?

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We have more power to take those courageous steps.

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And with each courageous step we take, we build up our confidence just bit by bit.

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So let's get into our practice today.

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I invite you to find a comfortable seat and upright position in a chair on a cushion with

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your spine upright, your shoulders relaxed on the back.

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And if it feels good for you to close your eyes, go ahead and close the eyes and start

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to tune into the breath.

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We'll call this our breath of courage, our brave breaths.

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And we'll take a deep breath in.

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And I invite you to use a movement with your two hands.

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What we're going to do is we're going to physically have our palms facing up.

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And we're going to elevate your palms all the way up to the crown of your head.

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When you get to the crown of the head, pause, flip your palms so they're facing down and

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then slowly bring the palms back down to the belly button.

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So with this movement, we're going to repeat it with the inhale.

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You'll lift the palms up towards the head and then exhale, flip the palms down and bring

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the breath back down towards the belly.

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Inhale, bring the palms up.

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Pause here, flip the palms and exhale.

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And as you raise the palms with your inhale, up the breath, up the spine, pause at the

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top and exhale.

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And with your movement, we're imagining our breath just cultivating the sense of courage

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in us.

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Take a deep breath in.

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Pause at the top and exhale.

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Bring the palms down.

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Pause and inhale.

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Bring the palms up.

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Pause, flip your palms down and exhale.

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And one last inhale from the belly all the way up to the crown, flip the palms and bring

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the breath back down, down, down to the belly and let your hands rest in your lap.

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Take a deep breath in.

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Let it go.

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And setting the intention to cultivate a bit more courage into your life this week, even

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if it's in just small ways.

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Take a deep breath in and let it go.

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Observing where fear comes up.

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Just noting where it lives in the body and remembering to use the breath to transmute

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those fears.

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Take a deep breath into the belly and let it out with a sigh.

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One more deep breath into the belly and exhale.

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I invite you to rub the hands together, create a little bit of friction between your palms,

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and when you feel some warmth, gently bring your palms to rest right at the belly button.

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Or just above the belly button.

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This is where your solar plexus chakra lives.

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This is the energetic center of our personal power, of our courage.

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And with your palms here, just breathe in.

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Use your courageous breath filling this part of your belly.

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Exhale.

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Breathe in that courage.

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As you exhale, letting the free, freeing any fear that might live here, anything that might

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be holding you back, we can loosen it with the breath.

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Take a deep breath in and let it go.

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Now as we come to a close, I want you to imagine this bright, brilliant yellow light shining

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from the solar plexus, illuminating this energy center.

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And as you breathe in, that light expands.

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Exhale.

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Take a deep breath in.

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And pause and imagine the light expanding.

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And as you exhale, letting go any fear that might be lingering.

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And I invite you to sit here and continue to follow the breath with your hands gently

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resting on your belly.

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And feel free to continue this breathing practice for as long as it feels good for you.

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Remember you can always come back to this practice whenever you're feeling a need to

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cultivate some courage in your life.

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Thank you so much for practicing with me.

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I'm Sabrina Amina and this is the feelings pod.

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Have a wonderful day.