COR-age ❤️🔥
Hi friends! Welcome to Full Stop, my daily attempt to live with outward honesty: to speak in truths, to learn, and to examine life. Thank you for your presence here.
🌸 Happy Mother’s Day
To every mother, including my own, who reads Full Stop. today – thank you for bearing the burden of care, for showing up even when you are beyond capacity.
Happy Mother’s Day.
🏆 The Etymology of Courage
Yesterday morning, I sat in an overly crowded dining hall enjoying a bowl of cottage cheese and watermelon (if this is a jarring combination: try it before you judge me). My airpods carry the voice of my most recent inspiration: Brené Brown.
Noise cancelling mode on.
As a trained expert, whose research focuses on courage, shame, and vulnerability, she stands at the forefront of my thought inspirers these days.
In a conversation with Tim Ferris, she discusses the meaning of the word courage, and how it stems from the latin root “cor”— heart.
There’s much to be revealed in the etymology, or origins, of words. I learned this in a writing class, which uncovered that some commonly used words have surprising roots (consider "essay," which means “to try”).
In a follow-up question, Ferris asks Brown what her gauge for living a courageous life is.
Her response?
“If I’m not a little bit nauseous when I’m done, I probably did not show up like I should have.” Brené Brown on The Tim Ferriss Show
Nauseous?
That checks out.
Back when I was a swimmer, my coach told me that the sign of a good workout, a solid lift, or a perfectly executed race was the sensation of nausea. Feeling like I was going to hurl.
I reflect on this notion outside of the pool as well:
Last semester, when I embarked on my first-ever acting class, a verbal knot engulfed my esophagus every time I stepped on stage to perform.
I am reminded of difficult conversations with people in my life—ones where I openly expressed defeat, suffering, and overwhelm.
Conversely, the same nausea arises when I express gratitude, admiration, and love directly to someone who deserves to hear blatant honesty.
Practicing courage—or practicing cor, specifically—is a highly emotional process.
When our rational minds attempt to take over, urging us to play it safe to avoid embarrassment and humiliation, we end up stifling our courage.
And to me, that is a restraint of pure experience– limitation to living at full potential.
As you approach the week ahead ➡️
consider how acting with courage is the harder route to follow, but perhaps, the more worthwhile one.
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I am 22, and I have no absolute certainty about where my life trajectory is taking me, whether it be in medicine, entrepreneurship, a combination of the two, or neither. Welcome to my process of discovery. Thank you for letting me learn on this journey. I hope you can too.