after several recommendations from a few friends i finally watched a tremendously insightful TedTalk titled, “The power of vulnerability” by Brene Brown. so great and thankful for the reminder that who we are and what we deeply crave is connection which can only happen when we are vulnerable to receive and give that connection…enjoy!
my notes from watching if you’d like the cliff notes version…
- connection is why we’re here…it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives
- this is what it’s all about
- the ability to feel connected
- worthiness – a strong sense of love and belonging
- those who possess this sense of belonging believe they’re worthy
- those who do not, have a deep fear of not being worthy of connection
- we crave a deep sense of worthiness
- those who possess worthiness also possess: courage, compassion & connection
- they also fully embrace vulnerability
- they believe that what makes them vulnerable makes them beautiful
- willingness to say “i love you” first
- vulnerability is the core of shame, fear and our struggle for worthiness
- but it appears that it is also the birth place of joy, of creativity, of belonging…of love
- why do we struggle with vulnerability so much?
- because we “numb” vulnerability: evidenced by being the most in debt, obese, addicted and medicated adult cohort in US history
- you cannot selectively numb emotion
- we cannot numb those hard feelings without also numbing the other emotions like joy, gratitude, happiness, etc
- why and how we numb?
- we make everything that is uncertain to certain
- we perfect
- we pretend that what we do doesn’t have an effect on people
- to live into vulnerability we must…
- let ourselves been seen
- to love with our whole hearts even though we know there’s no guarantee
- practice joy and gratitude
- to feel vulnerability is to feel alive
- to believe that we are enough…”i am enough”
- when we believe that we are enough, we are kinder and gentler to ourselves, to others and to the world
ubuntu 