Y Ddraig Goch

April 22 2025 - Fear & Courage

Prompt: Prompt: Fears and Courage “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” Robert Louis Stevenson Is it always wise to keep fears to ourselves or should we boast about our courage? What would pros and cons be in both these cases??

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There is no courage without fear. Each act of courage comes from overcoming something that we found/find difficult.

Everyone is intimidated or frightened by something - it's normal human behaviour. It's also what has kept us alive for thousands of years. It is nothing to be ashamed of. I have developed a fear of heights - it's a learnt fear from my inability to climb a ladder without wobbling all of the place. It's also completely understandable!!

Keeping our fears to ourselves does not help us overcome them. In fact, I believe it does the opposite. As a species we learn through sharing our experiences. Sharing our fears with others shows us that we are not on our own - giving us some much need support. It also allows us to learn how best to overcome those fears - as many of them are learnt behaviour and with support we can re-program our brains to eliminate or reduce the effect that fear has on us. Something that is difficult to do in isolation.

Sharing our fears also gives hope to those around us and gives them the confidence to do something about it, rather than just accept it. In this vein sharing our fear, showing and placing ourselves in a vulnerable position, is in itself courageous.