Courage: Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Dr. Richard Schwartz guides the listener to engage their parts and, together, view a courageous moment from the individual's past. The listener experiences the reactions from their parts and asks permission to embody the bravery they see in themself, sharing the feelings their parts experience as they move through this process.

Transcript

So once again we'll take some deep breaths.

This meditation is designed to help you embody another quality of self if your parts allow it.

So this time think of a time in your life when you felt a lot of courage.

It would be courage to speak about something scary,

Courage to act,

Courage to do something that a lot of parts of you were afraid to.

And again you can scan through your past,

Looking at different points until you find the time that it feels right.

When you find that courageous version of you,

Put that person in a room by him or herself and you're outside the room looking at that person through a window.

And see how you feel toward that,

That earlier version of you who held such courage and clarity,

Strength.

See how your parts react to that person.

And see if they'd be willing to let you embody that quality,

To become that you,

To enter that space,

Even though circumstances are different now.

But if they're not willing,

That's okay.

You can just explore their fears with them about what they're afraid would happen if they let you embody that quality of self,

Even for a little while.

But if they are willing,

Then go ahead and enter the room and step into that person's body and just feel that courage in your body now.

Just noticing what it feels like again.

And seeing how your parts react to your being,

That courageous state with them.

And see if they're willing to let you embody that quality of self,

To become that you,

To embody that quality of self.

And the time feels right,

Can begin to shift your focus back to the outside world.

But again,

See how possible it is to hold this courageous state,

This clear,

Strong state,

Even as you come back,

Even as you open your eyes.

Reviews

I connected with the flow of tears and sadness around needing to use courage in the first place. It was painful to experience difficulties instead of enjoying circumstances that allowed me the safety that I really needed.

Wow! I feel something shift bodily when I take part in your sessions.

The greatest therapeutic meditation I have come across. Exceptional!

Thanks for the lovely meditations, I’ve been feeling into my body for all these practices

A powerful and very helpful practice. Thank you 🙏

Wonderful way to bolster courage! I would love it more if there were no music or command to open our eyes at the end.

Loved this. Very cool exercise. I felt a blip of fear & nausea for moment but was allowed to embody it anyway. Courage includes fear tho, right? Feel the fear & do it anyway... thank you for this! 💜🙏💜

Great to explore a time when courage was available.

To begin with I struggled to identify an experience of feeling courage, I paused the track until the shimmer of one surfaced. This in itself was helpful and I found the meditation highly effective. Thank you

Uplifting. Great way to remind my parts that there is a courageous leader who can guide them.

This was a very gentle and healing experience for me. So simple, yet something I rarely do. Yes, courage is alive in me despite how often I forget that. 🙏

Just what I needed today, to reconnect with this part and he reminded of my own strength.

Powerful meditation which really helped me embody a sense of courage. Thank you Richard!

I love these IFS meditations! Richard Schwartz’s “No Bad Parts” was a life changing book for me this last year with IFS being a key modality in my Therapy. It would be so so helpful to add more IFS meditations to Insight Timer!

That was powerful. My therapist has been doing IFS work with me and finding Dr. Schwartz’s guided practices here will help me with my therapy homework!

Thank you - it reminded me of a very special time when I took courageous action and I can now tap into that part of myself. Very 'simple' yet impactful meditation! 🙏🏼

Great, my parts didn't like this at first and were hesitant to step in, but I did it and then one of my parts felt great dispair on what I once was. Then I found I was able to step into courage much more. Thanks so much.

Helpful, practical, and accessible meditation. Thank you!

Loved the calm strong feeling in your voice and the long pauses so I didn’t feel rushed to move on. ❤️

Interesting.