On Being Brave...

 

Last night I took the girls to Lagoon...a perfect place for the girls to practice bravery and to try new things.  The more experiences I have with these girls, the more I see myself urging them to be courageous.  I often find myself encouraging them to be braver than I ever was as a little girl.  I want them to be confident, tough, resilient.  I realize these are ideals, but they are ideals I truly hope I can encourage the girls to work towards.  

When I was reading my friend Becky's blog the other day, she wrote on this very topic and very eloquently summed up my own reasoning as to why it's so important to practice "bravery" in life:

 

"In my profession I receive the magazine Psychology Today.  As I was listening to the articles in the July/August 2013 issue one caught my attention:  What Happy People Do Differently: #1 they seek risk, not reward.  I was curious and listened to the article.  Stated - Happiness can be intentional and strategic.  Basically our habits and choices can push the needle on our well-being.  It turns out that activities that lead us to feel uncertainty and discomfort are associated with some of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences of people's lives.  Happy people, it seems, engage in a wide range of counterintuitive habits that seem, well, downright unhappy. Truly happy people seem to have an intuitive grasp of the fact that sustained happiness is not just about doing things that you like.  It also requires growth and adventuring beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone.  Happy people, are simply put, curious. In a 2007 study, Todd Kashdan and Colorado State psychologist Michael Steger found that when participants monitored their own daily activities, as well as how they felt, over the course of 21 days, those who frequently felt curious on a given day also experienced the most satisfaction with their life -- and engaged in the highest number of happiness inducing activities, such as expressing gratitude to a colleague or volunteering to help others.

Curiosity it seems is largely about exploration -- often at the price of momentary happiness.  Curious people generally accept the notion that while being uncomfortable and vulnerable is not an easy path, it is the most direct route to becoming stronger and wise.  Of course, there are plenty of instances in life where the best way to increase your satisfaction is to simply do what you know feels good, whether it's putting your favorite song on the jukebox or making plans to see your best friend.  But from time to time, it's worth seeking out an experience that is novel, complicated, uncertain, or even upsetting!"

 I think those words are so well said.  So much so that I wanted to post them on here so I can hopefully remember them.

What do my readers think about this topic?

I'm curious....

:)