Creating Brave Space

Brave

… from the root work for bold, courageous, untamed, savage. It’s interesting we use the term BRAVO when we are cheering someone on.

To the Anishinaabe, bravery is one of the seven teachings of our grandfathers.

Zoongidi’ewin – Courage or Aakwa’ode’ewin – Bravery is represented as the bear. The Bear carries courage. We seek the strength and courage to face our greatest enemy-oneself. The bear will give us the understanding to seek resolutions through spiritual intervention: hence, spiritual healing to deal with anger, pain and ourselves.

To be brave means you seek to apply your spiritual truths to your life, in order to assist you in growth and transformation.

To face life with courage is to know bravery. Find your inner strength to face the difficulties of life and the courage to be yourself. Defend what you believe in and what is right for your community, family, and self. Face your fears to allow yourself to live your life.

Social Emotional Learning

Bravery plays a big part in social emotional learning. The five competencies of SEL are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Considering that courage and bravery play a big role in our own self-awareness. Cultivating a brave space makes complete sense to supporting our social emotional learning skills.

Brave space is also recognizing the wholeness of our experiences. That we have wounds and traumas that do not always feel good, comfortable or safe.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

A brave space is a space where participants feel comfortable learning, sharing, and growing. It is inclusive to all races, sexes, genders, abilities, immigration status, and lived experiences. This is something we should strive for in all our experiences where we interact with one another. Leading towards a more inclusive way to insure all voices are heard and everyone is seen.

Living a life where we are unafraid to be who we are and share our stories with one another, is the only way to true peace and harmony.

Consider using the term brave space over safe space, and comment to let me know what you think about the difference.