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Courage and mindfulness

Last updated on June 3, 2017

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Fragilite by alibaba0 via FlickrToday, Paolo Coelho, as ever, said something both wise and challenging.

“Creativity is a courageous act.  Avoid opinions.”

It was certainly challenging to me.  I use this blog as a filing cabinet to keep my notes as I think out the connections between the things I am reading, thinking and doing.

It is a rag bag, yet it has worked out well. A few loyal readers make it sociable too.

But I’ve begun to tire of having opinions partly because I live and work in worlds where opinions are ten a penny (and that is saying something as it is very difficult to buy any thing in UK for less than very many pennies).  Like a toddler grabbing at an animal, we voice our opinions for the pleasure of feeling powerful and with reckless disregard of any damage we might do to anyone else or ourselves.

Courage comes from anticipating consequences.  Courage comes from understanding that to do right we might also do wrong, at least in some parts of our lives and the lives of others.  Courage comes from seeing through whatever we start and working through what we start to its natural end.  And sometimes courage leads us not to start at all, not out of cowardice, but because it is clear our act is just a worthless opinion and as self-indulgent as  a a small child handling an animal roughly.

It’s perhaps a feature of ‘mindfulness’ to be aware of the impact we have on the world and to act connectedly, and sometimes not to act because we realize our act is disconnected and minimally noise and potentially destructive.

Mindfulness and courage.  Do they go together?

Published in POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, WELLBEING & POETRY

2 Comments

  1. Very interesting indeed. Courage and creativity are all about fear. Take a look at the world cup in South Africa. So many million $ footballers who just can not kick a ball. If they could only lose their fear, then we would get the creativity and the goals. But we live in a world were are not allowed to lose. Pressure, pressure and more pressure. Having said all of that, the Brazillians dont have this problem. What is their secret?

  2. Yup, so much for individualistic cultures. If losing isn’t comfortable, no one will try to achieve!

    Maybe we have just forgotten how to have fun.

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