LAURA.
“BRAVERY for me is that little step when you know you’re struggling in your life; you’re not feeling happy and you’re not sure what’s going on and doing something to change your situation. Don’t let anyone else’s view confuse your own, listen to yourself, listen to your own intuition and don’t let fear stop you from confronting the things that are making you unhappy.
I just go about these days telling everyone to go to therapy because it’s amazing!
BRAVERY is also taking the time to take a step back and let everybody else do their own thing and so you can look after you. I had a breaking point, a mini meltdown where I realised I needed to do something. Bravery, for me is opening up and telling people that something is going on. I think that’s getting slightly easier because people are talking about mental health more. Now I talk to everyone about it, but before I was so scared to tell anyone that anything was wrong, because I thought everyone would think I was weird and that mental illness was some sort of crazy thing”
KEIRON.
BRAVERY.
BRAVERY is different for everyone. It looks different and feels different. I found myself having a lot of conversations based around BRAVERY this summer so decided to turn it into a mini-series. For this project I sit down with individuals and discuss what BRAVERY means to them, or maybe even who or what makes them BRAVE or feel BRAVE when they need it most.
MATT.
“For me, bravery is trusting my gut and really listening to my intuition to make the best decisions for me.
I got this tattoo on my arm – it says INTEGRITY – and that came from past experiences of not listening to myself, not living with integrity and previously making decisions without it. I got it tattooed on my arm so I could constantly see it and to remind myself how best to make a decision.
When I see people being unapologetically true to themselves, that to me is BRAVE”
Zoë
“Bravery is when you’re doing something that isn’t inside your comfort zone - when you have to take that leap. It could be anything from moving to a different country or battling through something that’s really challenging. I think bravery comes hand in hand with strength and I think to be a brave person you have to be strong. Bravery and strength don’t sound like they come hand in hand because when you’re being brave you’re probably a bit scared, and when you’re being strong you have to bring the best most powerful part of yourself out and that’s hard to do when you feel scared. Bravery is a mix of strength, vulnerability, fear and risk. It’s not a short term thing, and I feel like you only know really know when you’ve been brave in hindsight.
To me, it’s important to have a good network around you and my friends mean everything to me. I’m not that close to my family, and as cheesy as it sounds my friends are my family. My best friends are so strong and I don’t think they realise how much they do for me. The last few years have pushed me into some of the darkest and hardest times in my life and I’ve needed to be brave and make difficult decisions but they were always by my side and there through the good and bad, thick and thin. I think in a lot of situations you need the support of other people to help you through those tough times but I do believe whether you’ve got a team of people helping you or it’s just you, at the end of the day you’re making the final call. You will always have to come to your own decision in your own time. That’s part of being brave; taking the risk and knowing deep down that you have to make the decision and trust your instincts. Being able to trust other people can help you be brave but knowing that those special people that surround me will always be honest and never push me into making a decision I’m not ready to or want to is something I absolutely treasure and I honestly do love them”
"How do I summarise BRAVERY?! I suppose it means a whole bunch of stuff;
Listening to your inner voice and acting on it, regardless of what society says, or the expectations of other people, and doing it anyway. Then having the trust that it will work out even if there is no proof.
I think I’ve only had moments of BRAVERY in my life. I want to work out how I can be consistently BRAVE because I feel like it’s a choice you make every day. Am I going to procrastinate and be distracted today, or am I going to be conscious of what I’m doing and face the difficulties?!
I think over time it’s become easier for me to be BRAVER because I’ve gradually become more comfortable in my own skin caring less about what other people think. I think it’s a really hard thing, for people to be vulnerable. I think vulnerability is a big part of BRAVERY, and being consistently open is really hard"
Dawn.
“To me you’re only really being brave when you’re doing something that is absolutely making you shit yourself with fear. It’s that knowledge that you’re really struggling, it presses every button in you and you do it anyway – that’s bravery.
When you’re in the act of bravery you’re so far out of your comfort zone and you feel incredibly vulnerable; you can’t have one without the other. That’s what it is, that’s what bravery is; it’s stepping into your vulnerability. It’s when you’re worried and scared, but you do it anyway.
When I need to be brave I think about being an example to my kids. It’s important to me to show them that despite the fact that I’m actually freaking out, I’m still going to go ahead because the act of bravery always builds self-confidence. I don’t want to be fake, I want to inspire them to be brave and see what they can be. I refuse to live a life of fear or thinking ‘what if’. I want to look back and feel proud that I went for it, and that means doing some things that freak me out.
But equally, my kids are really brave in themselves and braver than me in a lot of ways, and that inspires me. I often think if I were in their positions, would I be as brave? My daughter had an operation when she was two, and as scary as it was she just had to get on with it. Seeing that was a real lesson for me and helped me to be braver. If I wasn’t their Mum - if I wasn’t a Mum - I don’t think I’d be as brave”