Courage: Take One Step

What if courage isn’t a surge of fearlessness, but the willingness to take one honest step while fear walks beside you? In this powerful session, Mark Groves guides you into the deeper truth rumbling within - the boundary you’ve avoided, the conversation you’ve postponed, the step you already know is yours to take. Through breath and self-honesty, you’ll learn to interpret discomfort as a sign of readiness, not weakness.

You’ll leave with an intention to guide your day:
Today, I’ll do the small, brave thing that’s been waiting.

Transcript

Welcome to day 16 of Insight Timer's Intention Setting Challenge.

Setting an intention is making a decision about who you want to be and how you choose to show up.

Over time,

Those choices become change.

Let's begin.

Hello and welcome to Insight Timer's Intention Setting Challenge.

My name is Mark Groves.

When most of us think about courage,

We imagine something huge.

But real true courage is usually much more subtle.

It's the uncomfortable conversation you've been avoiding.

It's the boundary you've delayed.

The truth you haven't said out loud yet.

Courage isn't about being fearless.

It's about doing the thing even while you feel that fear.

So the intention we're carrying with us today is,

Today I'll do the small brave thing that's been waiting.

I want you to close your eyes.

Take a deep breath in through your nose.

As you feel that power radiate through your body of breath,

And exhale through your mouth.

Take another deep breath in,

Inhaling that courage,

That bravery,

And then exhale out.

I want you to think about where in your body that rumble lives,

That unspoken conversation,

That boundary you have yet to put up.

I want you to think about how that feels.

Knowing that you currently live in a body that maybe sometimes you don't even feel safe in because you don't have access to your voice.

That what you've labeled as anxiety or other emotions of just unease is really that you've been stirring up the energy to be able to say the thing,

To do the thing,

To become who you are.

So there's nothing to shame or judge,

But to actually recognize that the experience you've been having in your body has been an accurate barometer of the life that you've often tolerated.

That when you are confronted with your own dreams and your passions,

That you have silenced those things.

That you've turned down the volume on your expression.

That you've turned down your grief,

Your anger,

Your joy,

Your excitement,

Your possibility,

Your potential.

To take a deep breath into that.

For it's courageous to confront the reality of who we've been.

It's courageous,

Maybe the most courageous act,

To feel into the pain and suffering that is created from a life that wants to be lived that we are not living.

There's nothing for me to protect you from by being careful with my words so you don't feel the pain of what it means to abandon your own self.

That pain is necessary.

That suffering is necessary.

That you might think,

Oh my gosh,

It's taken me this long to do the thing.

That shame has no home.

Because all it does is keep you in a cycle of being stuck.

And when we are to confront that experience and think,

Oh my gosh,

It's taken me this long because I've needed this much preparation to build my capacity to step into the unknown.

Even if that unknown is juicy and delicious and possible and my potential and what my heart has been yearning for.

To also honor that to the nervous system,

Different is dangerous.

Taking a deep breath in.

That as you stir up the fire in your body that you feel what it means to stoke the flame of the passion of your soul,

Of what you want to bring into this life,

Of the conversations that you have held back because you've been afraid of how they might impact other people and then you have swallowed up that conflict thinking it didn't go anywhere but it went inside of you.

And that you will no longer avoid conflict outside of you because someone else can't have and doesn't have the capacity to hold difference,

Doesn't have the capacity to hold their emotional experience when it is actually that exact emotional experience that will allow them to build that capacity.

That when you don't trust them to hold it,

You actually recreate the same circumstances you're afraid of.

Whenever you're afraid that if you speak your truth and step into your power and your potential and what you dream of,

That you'll be abandoned,

Left,

Betrayed,

Whatever it might be,

That in the very act of holding those things back you do that to yourself.

And so this small brave act that can be as simple as,

I'm going to put on my shoes in the morning and go for a walk.

My courageous act will be commuting with nature.

We think,

I want to get that thing and we think about all the steps we're going to have to take and what happens if we fail,

We'll have to start over.

You're just continuing.

Start with step one.

Start with step one and the path will illuminate itself.

I often say when I'm stuck,

Show me the way,

I'll walk it.

And there's a famous saying that is,

Everyone is capable of 10 seconds of absolute unbridled bravery.

Everyone has 10 seconds of just crazy amounts of courage to start that conversation,

Say that thing,

Claim that dream,

Claim that feeling,

Honor that boundary.

It just takes 10 seconds.

To change your life.

Breathing into the acceptance of that.

And not just the acceptance,

But the power of that.

That you have far more than 10 seconds in you,

But that's where you can start.

So before you head into the rest of your day,

Tune into the one thing that's been lingering.

The small,

Brave step you already know is yours to take.

You don't need to tackle everything.

Just begin with that one act.

Remember,

Today I'll do the small,

Brave thing that's been waiting.

On the next few screens,

You'll be invited to set this intention or a variation of it to your insight timer home screen.

The simple act of seeing your intention reflected back throughout the day is enough to create change.

Good luck with the rest of the challenge.

Reviews

Thank you 🙏 this very intention is the one I often come back to when fear gets me stuck in my own thoughts - I remember I have 10 seconds of absolute bravery and I do one small brave thing and the feeling that comes afterwards is pure bliss ✨

This is an all time favorite guided meditation. Your words speak to my soul. I feel guided to be brave every time I listen. Thank you.

This meditation is a pep talk extraordinaire! I could listen to this every morning. Thank you!

Powerful and brilliant. With each new listen I learn something.

Through you enjoyed this and is so resonated with where I am now, thank you

I have listened to this countless times as it came up on the challenge. It has become such an anchor for me as I need to do "the thing". The words and meanings are just soul touching. Thank you 💫💕

Brilliant talk. So powerful, strait to the point and empowering.
I've listen twice and it will become one of my favourites especially when procrastination will try to stop me taking action.
Thank you so much.

This is so powerful and helpful that I have to listen again! Thank you. 🙏🏾

I listened twice in a row bc I felt so empowered and called out and just wow, seen. Thank you for this, you radiate the most powerful energy in your words and voice.

I had to listen to this three times. It’s one of the most powerful meditations I’ve ever heard. I truly needed these words, and ironically I actually took one of those steps last week and finished it today- a very difficult debt consolidation step. It ended with super happy tears. I still have one more very emotional challenge ahead of me but I will listen to this again before I undertake it. Thank you so much for this insightful and inspiring meditation.
🐝🎁🪬🐾🌹💐🌷🌼🦋🙏🏽🪬

That was awesome. It connected with me and inspired me

Profound

I listened to this three times, it's incredibly powerful. Thank you.

Incredibly powerful. I feel called out, sad and joyful simultaneously. At 75, this really resonates. Thank you.

Wow!!! Exavtly what was needed today. So grateful for your guidance on having courage. Every single word resonated!!! Thank you

WoW, this is very powerful for me. I resonated to this guided meditation instantly. I adore the way Mark speaks the truth. I really love his firm voice and the way he speaks. I have listened to this guided meditation twice this morning. One brave step I take every day is to wake up, get up, meditate and seize the day the best I possibly can. Another brave step I can take is to put on my shoes and go for a walk. I am fearful to speak my truth for fear of abandonment. For more then 22 years, as I started my journey with chronic leukemia (blood cancer) and on treatment for life, I have lost myself and have become fearful of the world. I am grateful to have found Mark in this Insight Timer 2026 Daily Intention Setting Challenge. Thank you Mark. In Gratitude 🙏🏼 ❤️

Best courage insight heard so far! So powerful

I will take that 10 seconds of bravery and do something I've put off fir for a while...
Thank you
Donald

Good

Exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you.