on being brave 𓆩♡𓆪
to be brave is to know the stakes and throw your dice on the table anyway.
Angels, as a gift for you while we’re off over the holidays I wanted to un-paywall some of my favourite editions of Bel’s weekend newsletter.
If you love Bel’s words as much as I do and want to enjoy it weekly next year, please consider becoming a SYSCA supporter, and PREORDER OUR BOOK 𓆩♡𓆪
Bravery, or courage, boils down to doing something that scares you, which I think is something we learn in mythology as kids. There’s a dragon, there’s a man with a sword, and somewhere along the way, more often than not, a woman who needs saving.
But thinking of bravery as an everyday act has been transformative in my life. Doing the kinda hard thing. ‘Swallowing the frog first’ as my mum would say (doing something a bit difficult). Having hard conversations. Sending the text. Going out on a limb. Being vulnerable. Asking for what you want. Putting a line out in the water to see what comes back.
In my own life, it’s manifested in so many big and small things. Buying a flight. Selling all my things. Sending an email pitching an idea that turns into something poignant. Asking someone out and ending up falling in love for a while. DMing someone I admire to meet for coffee and borrowing their brain for an hour. When life feels stagnant or not moving in the way I wish it would, I feel like it’s always bravery that I’m lacking. How can I go out and find this? Probably by doing something I’m a little bit afraid of.
I feel like it’s SO EASY to look at others’ lives and glamourise them, often unable to see their struggles or perhaps their own invisible leaps of faith they’ve taken, not knowing quite where they’ll end up. Do we ever?
Bravery for me, starts to go over and beyond gratitude (the above) and push you into thinking about how your life can shift into different realms, however small or significant.
Is it making boundaries? Making plans? Cancelling plans? Taking a risk on a person or a job or a night out? Sometimes you can feel so paralysed with making the right decision, afraid of its cause-and-effect not being right. But what if the ‘rightness’ is instead just taking a punt at something, being brave and feeling alive?
Because to be brave is to know the stakes and throw your dice on the table anyway. It’s to turn up uninvited and believe you’re meant to be there. It’s knowing not everything is going to work out, but trying anyway. It’s believing in what you’re worth and the potential of how things can be if you only give life a chance to give it to you.
Three things spring to mind at this point, which I thought would be cute to share:
1) I know this is real Indie Boy of me to quote, but I think about that Hunter S Thompson quote from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas all the time, “buy the ticket, take the ride,” a lot.
2) I recently read writer
3) For a while, designer Tessa Forrest’s subliming.jpg was one of my favourite pages on Instagram. I kinda detest cringe affirmations, but the way she merged old philosophy with contemporary designs
During the peak of my extremely uncertain ‘what will happen next’ nomadic times of my life, this was my screensaver and daily encouragement to be brave, see what happened, believe in good, and believe things will work themselves out.
Be brave, however that looks for you today, and see what happens 𓆩♡𓆪
If you love Bel’s words as much as I do and want to enjoy it weekly next year, please consider becoming a SYSCA supporter, and PREORDER OUR BOOK 𓆩♡𓆪
Genuinely so into the idea of dming somebody and getting coffee! But also my social anxiety is off the charts just thinking about it😭
thank you for this 🩷