I love the word “ferocity”. We know it as the mama bear (and mama bear human) who steps forward to protect her young. When I looked up ferocity in the dictionary, I got fierceness, rage and violence. When I use the word, I don’t mean violence or uncontrollable rage; yet, I do mean fierceness.

My love affair with the word began when I first heard it connected to old, subtly persisting childhood limiting beliefs, such as lacking qualities or not being enough. I realized that it was a quality that I had in short supply. I grabbed on to the word, knowing that to really change a belief, I had to be ferocious. I had to take that stand and stick to it…like mama bear.

There is no reason any of us should not take a stand for being smart, lovable, or enough.

My ferocity is also clear and compassionate. It is based on and grounded in love and the certainty of human worth and value. It has clear boundaries, is present and rooted.

When I was parenting a teen, it took a while for me to get my own productive ferocious style in navigating negative comebacks. For so long I wanted to (and often did) react. I had to learn that if a heart connection was not possible in the moment, it was better to ignore and not react, then return later and connect and be clear about boundaries and human worth.

It takes ferocity to try new ways of being. It takes ferocity to face things that are challenging. It takes ferocity to believe in oneself so much that we can carry out a healthy risk.

What is your up and coming ferocious stance? How and when do we nurture ferocity