28/05/2024
HOW TO CREATE COURAGE
“That guy is grounded AF.”
That’s what my British friend said over the phone the other day. Except he didn’t say ‘AF’.
He went on to share that although he’d never been politically active, if he lived in the USA he too would support Robert F Kennedy Jr’s campaign for president.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why I’m doing this, about why I am giving my money and time to a cause that history demonstrates is a futile attempt.
In my Creating perspective, all admiration is projection. By this, I mean that what I admire in Bobby Kennedy is actually my seeing of something within me. I see my own values and aspirations expressed in him and this is why he inspires me.
In a way, this is why we look to heroes. Not to save us from the world, but as an invitation for us to step up and save ourselves from ourselves.
The way I’ve been contributing to the campaign lately is to help supporters find courage. Be it the courage to wear a t-shirt, put a sign in their yard or simply bring up politics in conversation. The fact is that, for most people, including myself, it does take courage to do these things.
That courage can be created though. It can be accessed and instigated in conversation. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve watched the leader of the campaign in my state take the ideas I’ve shared and run with them, opening up a whole new level of her leadership and impact, sharing stories that are captivating and inspiring countless more to their own courage. Not to use a traumatic metaphor, but courage is spreading like wildfire here in Hawaii.
The first idea is a simple one and it is what I shared already. The courage we can see in Robert F Kennedy Jr - the courage to be the third man in his bloodline to run for the same office on the same mission to dismantle the over-centralization of power and halt American imperialism, despite both his uncle and his father being assassinated for this mission, is the epitome of courage.
When we see courage like that, it stirs something in us. Deep down, beneath the calloused layers of apathy and behind the drone of a Netflix binge, that same heart that has fought wars and won freedom awakens. It can feel like a sleeping giant stirring within you.
But we hush him or her back to sleep.
Do not stir. Do not wake, for I know not what I would do. I know not how far I would stick my neck out and, god forbid I do that, for I might get it chopped off.
Which would be very inconvenient, since the next season of whatever is about to drop.
It’s been a long time since we had a real American hero.
We don’t want to believe the hype. Instead, we want to hold on to the narrative we’ve been riding on for years now. The one that comes from the top, where the truth is supposed to be. The loudest speaker. The tallest building. The brightest lights.
It’s like we’re children again, on the monorail that circles Disney World. If we could just stay here, forever, and keep going around and around, then maybe our whole life could be magical. If we just didn’t have to go back, then all could be well.
One too many times now though, we have been disappointed. Our doctor was wrong. The news got it wrong. The guy we trusted got arrested for a crime we couldn’t believe he committed.
Whether we like it or not now, the giant is stirring and we may find that if we simply keep quiet, we may not be able to stop him or her from waking.
Courage is not something you go and get, out there. It’s a latent energy within you. A dusty old thing, but only on the outside, for within the gears are still well oiled, and with a flick of its switch it can come immediately to life.
Besides stories of courage that speak directly to the more free, loving, and powerful version of yourself that your heart knows is possible, the other way I instigate and activate courage is to utilize the projection of course that we see ‘out there’ by asking a question.
In my gifted coaching session for Kennedy supporters who shared situations that challenged them personally, I asked them a simple question:
“Who would Bobby be?”
You could replace ‘Bobby’ with anyone, of course. Pick a person that inspires you or that you admire and try the question on.
The first answers often sound something like, “I don’t know what he would do.”
That’s fair enough. But that wasn’t the question I asked. I didn’t ask what he would do. I asked who he would be.
When we admire someone, it is their being that we are in contact with. This means, that within us, we have an idea of who they would be in a situation. When we take pause to actually consider that, we can always access it.
When I’ve helped people of all ages to really understand the question I’m actually asking them, there is a point at which they get it, their pupils dilate and they fall silent. It’s a beautiful moment to watch someone drop out of the pinball game in their head into the deep and still sea of their hearts. They breathe deeply and then speak softly, saying things like…
“He would love them unconditionally.”
“He would try to find a reasonable middle ground.”
“He would have peace and calm and move on to the next thing.”
In the wake of these speakings, after offering a brief silence for the sacredness of what the individual just created within themselves, my sentiment is always the same:
“There’s your answer. And by the way, that’s not Bobby. That’s you. That’s the loving you. That’s the courageous you.”
Since these ‘courageous conversations’ are going so well, we are expanding my support from our state to the whole country.
Like I said, courage spreads like wildfire.
You can create ripples of love and power in your life and for whatever your mission is.
Find someone whose courage you admire, ask yourself who they would be in a situation, and know that in that sacred moment of coming into contact with your knowing of who they would be, you are coming to know yourself, your own heart, more deeply.
Know this and you will find all the courage you need to create the more beautiful world your heart knows is possible.
Loving us all, JPM
PS - I’m walking a fine line here in sharing my journey into the political world without promoting a political position you haven’t signed up to receive, hence why I’m not including any links here. If you’d like to see some clips of me coaching campaign supporters, just DM me and I’ll send you a link.
