The dictionary describes courage as the ability to do something that frightens a person (fear). But it’s more than that.

It is about pushing through when every cell in your body is telling you to flee. It’s when your mind, body and heart want to shut down and avoid reality.

As one of the nine virtues, courage becomes a testing point for our existence. According to Mark Twain, Courage is not the absence of fear, but resistance to fear. Courage and Fear are often thought about as opposite experiences.

The truth is, they are intrinsically related. Fear is something that is rooted in the evolution of the human brain. Early humans continuously focused on potential threats of physical attack. And although we don’t typically face the same threats to safety and survival, our brain circuitry is now activated by other threats like uncertainty, judgement, loss of control and failure.

So what is the key to interrupting fear and activating courage?

Fear is such a primal, instinctive response that trying to banish it is unrealistic. Instead it’s about learning how to respond to it. The key is to notice when this primitive alarm system goes off and switch to fightmode. When you are faced with a situation that causes extreme anxiety or fear, fight for yourself by engaging in problem solving where the outcome can be influenced or letting go when it is outside your control.

The first step is having the courage to give yourself this testing point for existence, resist fear, and present yourself with an opportunity to flourish.