In one of my all-time favorites movies, The Matrix, (This clip) Morpheus offers Neo a choice that would transform his life: 

“You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.

You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.”

Faced with the choice between knowledge, freedom, awareness and the sometimes painful truth of reality …

… or a world built on illusions, false security and blissful ignorance, which pill would you take?

We are faced with choices like these everyday.

Wake up or stay asleep?

Live through our instinctual, default, unexamined beliefs, or make conscious, informed and aware decisions about what we attend to and co-create together?

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure and honor of exploring these choices and concepts with a large group of you at our From Safe to Brave Workshop and left the day feeling deeply enriched by the presence and contributions made by those of you who attended.

We explored the transformative shift that we can make from living lives based on instincts, fears and default defenses, to activating courage and openheartedness in co-creating the kind of world we’d like to live in.

Everyday we make choices between these proverbial red pills and the blue pills; to wake up, to transform, or to remain as we are.

At the workshop, people shared a rich set of resources that helped them practice and embody awareness, relational bravery and courage in their daily lives.

I was so inspired that I wanted to share a few of those resources below:

This clip made me cry.

This Is Water: a 9-minute film by The Glossary, excerpts of David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon College commencement speech in which he encourages us to do the work of choosing what does and does not have meaning in our own lives. 

Holy War, by Alicia Keys: A beautiful – almost haunting – ballad questioning what we call “holy” and what we consider “obscene.”

It takes courage to choose the red pill and to step out of the familiar patterns of our lives.

A quote in my kitchen reads: “Sometimes, your only available transportation is a leap of faith.”

Each of us gets to choose and decide what brings us meaning, hope, inspiration and courage.

I’d love to hear what brings you meaning, inspiration and courage – leave a comment below!