courage for JOURNALISM
Dr Christian heim
Dr Caroline heim
VALUES
We need to know our VALUES as a compass for our intended life direction
We need COURAGE to choose to move towards our intended life direction
How can I know my values? Consider this tool while you sit quietly for a few hours:
Theory
You can find our posts on values HERE: what they are, and the theory behind them. To do anything, the brain has to value it.
What are values?
Values are “ambitions with a moral connotation”(1) and personal imperatives of what “ought to be.”(2) They interact with but are distinct from our personality.(3)
Our definition is:
Values are our culturally-inherited principles, refined by choice … to guide our priorities, goals, behaviours, and decisions.(4)
Values can be ideals (loyalty), legal principles (do not steal), leisure-based (have fun), socio-political (equality), workplace-based (greed is good), relational (be kind to others) and more. We naturally feel that others ‘ought’ to live by certain values, particular our own, while knowing that values vary from person to person. This leads to clashes and conflict. A list of values is endless. They are instilled into us as children by parents, teachers, collective history, culture, beliefs, the legal system, societal trends, and more. As we grow, we accept or reject our parents’ and others’ values while forming our own unique value system.
What’s the difference between goals and values?
This world emphasizes achieving goals. Make sure your goals line up with your values. Achieving goals while neglecting values can lead to depression. I’ve seen it in clinical practice: the successful businessperson who loses their family, the traveller chasing experiences but missing self-acceptance, the celebrity liked by all but close to no one.
COURAGE
Why have courage?
To move towards and live out what you value and what you want.
What is courage?
While feeling fear, be aware of it and choose the action which will achieve the right outcome
Theory
You can find our POSTS on courage HERE. They deal with what courage is, and the theory behind it.
Scientists have articulated the pathways in the brain which are active while people make decisions which involve courage (See Nili et al. study). This is exciting. In the study, people were asked to pull a trolley with a live snake as close to their faces as they could. Their brains were being imaged to see what brain-parts were involved in their decision-making.
Parts of the brain involved included the Orbito-Frontal Cortex (OFC) to coordinate decision-making, the subgenual Anterior Cingulate Gyrus (sgACG) which coordinates emotions, empathy and social cues, the Amygdala which generates feelings of fear, the Frontal Lobe for awareness, memories, beliefs and values and thinking, and the right Temporal Pole (rTP) to monitor and process social and emotional information.
In sorting through the complexity, the study found that once people chose courage it was easier for them to choose courage again in the future. People who didn’t choose courage found it harder to choose again in the future. This means that courage is a skill. It can be learned and practiced. You can get better at it. This, I believe, is highly significant.
THE COURAGE TO “face” your fear
F A C E : FEEL THE FEAR.
F A C E : AWARENESS. You create awareness in your brain by observation your own thoughts and feelings. You can be aware of your mental states by asking yourself what am I thinking and feeling right now? This, essentially, is the practice of mindfulness. In a state of awareness, you can more freely choose from a range of options which are open to you.
F A C E : CHOOSE COURAGE
F A C E : EMPATHY. Use empathy for others (I’ll make mum proud of me, provide for my family, contribute to society, I’ll help make the world a better place) as a motivation to choose courage. Philosopher David Hume articulated how strongly we are motivated by other people. His ideas have been confirmed in recent studies. Empathy helps you CHOOSE COURAGE. Empathy, for your significant others and for your future self, is a core component in our approach to Preventative Mental Health.
RESOURCES
@collegementalhealthpodcast @drchristianheim
PODCAST
Caroline and Christian answer student mental health questions on spiralling thoughts, work/life balance, comparing yourself with others, burnout, making friends, substance abuse and many more
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FOR COURAGE
Findyartini, Ardi, Estivana Felaza, Daniar Setyorini, and Rita Mustika. "Relationship between empathy and motivation in undergraduate medical students." GMS journal for medical education 37, no. 4 2020: Doc43.
Magnano, Paola, Anna Paolillo, Silvia Platania, and Giuseppe Santisi. "Courage as a potential mediator between personality and coping." Personality and individual differences 111, 2017: 13-18.
Nili, Uri, Hagar Goldberg, Abraham Weizman, and Yadin Dudai. "Fear thou not: activity of frontal and temporal circuits in moments of real-life courage." Neuron 66, no. 6, 2010: 949-962.
Zaki, Jamil, "Empathy: a motivated account." Psychological bulletin 140, no. 6, 2014: 1608
Zavaliy, Andrei G., and Michael Aristidou. "Courage: A modern look at an ancient virtue." Journal of Military Ethics 13, no. 2, 2014: 174-189.