The Coward and The Hero. Truth vs Peace.
There are no rules anymore.
It's both amazing and terrifying - because it all comes down to you.
Ask yourself; what rules am I entertaining in my mind, in my body and where did they come from? Did I choose them? Are they worthy regulations – do they add to my boundary, my life and discipline? Are they evolving constantly with my heart?
Break your own rules and see what happens. Because what is more valuable is to be discerning. It’s essential we know our “yes” from our “no” and our “wait” (when we simply need more information or learn to hold, to allow the pause). Discernment is vastly different to rules, as it lives in the moment.
Rules might sound like ‘what I can and can’t do’, and ‘the story of who I need to be’. Let all constraints disappear. Challenge any you have, ensure they exist to support and nurture your aliveness.
The problem with rules is we allow them to be solid and steady over time without questioning how they even got there.
When we look to nature we see that its boundary and container shifts endlessly. It is always there, yet responsively. This is discernment, it changes to meet the living need.
The edge of the lake shifts with the in- and out-breath of the water, of the tides and the rains. We are perfectly created to respond to our life, as it comes.
We are confronted with endless decisions. There is a question we face daily – Do I choose what is right and true, or what is easy?
If these two sides were to enter the boxing ring, we would have a battle of TRUTH vs PEACE. It's a battle we all know. While they co-exist beautifully, the battle arises when we choose peace over truth. Then truth starts a fight.
Peace is chosen over truth to be pleasing. We believe it supports our environment and the people within it, causes the least harm. However peace when placed before truth, requires the most effort to maintain.
Truth is essential. Without it, something eats us up inside, and peace is not real. It is a treaty, a compromise that needs constant energy. Unlike truth, which feeds itself, peace based on compromise, on allowing things to stay the same, needs constant attention and input from you.
In choosing truth, we’re immediately met with a surplus of energy, with whatever is needed to meet our lives. When we embrace what is real and true, we are supported by life and everything becomes easier. It requires the initial leap. Truth means freedom, and what greater peace is there than freedom.
You are both the Hero or Heroine in your own life and the Coward. While I often work with the Hero’s journey in my own life and that of my clients, it’s time to acknowledge the coward – and how the two are joined within.
Take the invitation right now to drop any positive and negative projections on these two roles and archetypes. Both serve you, and you know both well. We cannot be a hero to ourselves without first understanding and meeting our coward. The coward is fuel to the hero’s fire. The coward lets us know where our power lies, and what it is ‘worth’. What have we given up in our own lives, what have we sacrificed and for whom or what purpose?
Befriend the coward for they let us know about the fear, the insecurity, and also the love that lives in our sacrifice. The love is hidden in the reason for the sacrifice. "I can’t do this because….."
It’s all the conditions and rules that lie hidden. The story of who we will hurt by being freely who we are. It’s a story, but it’s not necessarily a true one. The coward lives by conditions. The hero lives by importance.
Once we have sat and met our caring coward - and listened to all that informs our need, we can call on the hero / heroine to walk with this in a deeper way. To meet the truth. Ask the coward "Is that true?" and "What else is true?"
The coward is nurturing something very precious in their hands. Protecting it. Pay attention to that gem. Acknowledge the importance. When the hero takes that into its own arms, more than before is suddenly possible.
The hero asks; How do I love with this? Move with this? Live with this? Rather than freeze around it. Rather than be limited within it.
The next steps are known when we join our coward and our hero/ heroine in the linking of arms. The hero listens to the coward and what it holds most dear in its arms. The hero is willing to look for truth first (not peace), and trusts in the peace and freedom that follow this path. The hero stays with the truth that unfolds in each present moment.