Brené Brown
I became Vulnerability TED, like an action figure - like Ninja Barbie, but I'm Vulnerability TED.Collection: Motivation
If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.Collection: Meaningful
If you can't say it to me in front of my kids, don't say it.Collection: Kids
Cool is the emotional straightjacket. It makes us less available for connection which makes us less equipped for leadership roles.Collection: Emotional
I'm an academic. I'm hardwired for a good debate.Collection: Debate
Authenticity is also about the courage and the vulnerability to say, "Yeah, I'll try it. I feel pretty uncomfortable and I feel a little vulnerable, but I'll try it!"Collection: Trying
I think a lot of us are looking for the same thing.Collection: Thinking
I am a storyteller and a researcher, and I'm sorry the world has a hard time straddling the tension of those two things, but that's who I am.Collection: Sorry
Then I tell my own story. The two things that people really need to transform is language to understand their experience and to know they're not alone. It's the combination of the researcher-storyteller part.Collection: Two
I can't even think of the right word, but it's not "help." It's more like a prerequisite. I think connection is why we're here, it's what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and belonging is in our DNA. And so "tribe" and "belonging" are irreducible needs, like love.Collection: Thinking
It's a practice for me every day, sometimes every hour of every day. It is an absolute practice. When I went into the research, I really thought that there are authentic people and inauthentic people, period. What I found is, there people who practice authenticity and people who don't. The people who practice authenticity work their ass off at it.Collection: Practice
That's really part of being a grounded theory researcher - putting names to concepts and experiences that people have.Collection: Names
Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn't change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.Collection: Brave
It's not about 'what can I accomplish?' but 'what do I want to accomplish?' Paradigm shift.Collection: Inspiring
Believing that you're enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic.Collection: Confidence
Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.Collection: Showing Up
The most powerful teaching moments are the ones where you screw up.Collection: Powerful
You can't get to courage without walking through vulnerability.Collection: Walking
If we can share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding, shame can't survive.Collection: Empathy
We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.Collection: Positive
If we own the story then we can write the ending.Collection: Inspirational
What makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful.Collection: Beautiful
You either walk inside your story and own it or you stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness.Collection: Confidence
Rest and play, are as vital to our health as nutrition and exerciseCollection: Exercise
Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better and the world a little braver. And our world could stand to be a little kinder and braver.Collection: Our World
At the end of my life I want to be able to say I contributed more than I criticized.Collection: Want
Every single person has a story that will break your heart. And if you're paying attention, many people... have a story that will bring you to your knees. Nobody rides for free.Collection: Heart
The willingness to show up changes us, It makes us a little braver each time.Collection: Littles
Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them- we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed, and rare.Collection: Betrayal
Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you're enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect. When we don't have that, we shape-shift and turn into chameleons; we hustle for the worthiness we already possess.Collection: Believe
If you put shame in a petri dish, it needs three ingredients to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you put the same amount of shame in the petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can't survive.Collection: Silence
You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you can't have both.Collection: Comfort
Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It's about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.Collection: Real
Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is cor - the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant "To speak one's mind by telling all one's heart." Over time, this definition has changed, and today, we typically associate courage with heroic and brave deeds. But in my opinion, this definition fails to recognize the inner strength and level of commitment required for us to actually speak honestly and openly about who we are and about our experiences -- good and bad. Speaking from our hearts is what I think of as "ordinary courage.Collection: Latin
We live in a world where most people still subscribe to the belief that shame is a good tool for keeping people in line. Not only is this wrong, but it’s dangerous. Shame is highly correlated with addiction, violence, aggression, depression, eating disorders, and bullying.Collection: Bullying
Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.Collection: Inspiring
Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. It hates having words wrapped around it - it can't survive being shared. Shame loves secrecy... When we bury our story, the shame metastasizes.Collection: Hate
If you're not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I'm not interested in your feedback.Collection: Arena
It’s no longer a question of can I do it. It’s a question of: Do I want to do it?Collection: Want
Our stories are not meant for everyone. Hearing them is a privilege, and we should always ask ourselves this before we share: "Who has earned the right to hear my story?" If we have one or two people in our lives who can sit with us and hold space for our shame stories, and love us for our strengths and struggles, we are incredibly lucky. If we have a friend, or small group of friends, or family who embraces our imperfections, vulnerabilities, and power, and fills us with a sense of belonging, we are incredibly lucky.Collection: Struggle
I've come to this belief that, if you show me a woman who can sit with a man in real vulnerability, in deep fear, and be with him in it, I will show you a woman who, A, has done her work and, B, does not derive her power from that man. And if you show me a man who can sit with a woman in deep struggle and vulnerability and not try to fix it, but just hear her and be with her and hold space for it, I'll show you a guy who's done his work and a man who doesn't derive his power from controlling and fixing everything.Collection: Real
I can't be paralyzed anymore by the critics. My new mantra is, if you're not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, then I'm not interested in your feedback. You don't get to sit in the cheat seat and criticize my appearance or my work with mean-spiritedness if you're also not in the arena.Collection: Mean
The question isn't so much "Are you parenting the right way?" as it is: "Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?"Collection: Children
Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which are not only hollow substitutes for belonging, but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.Collection: Motivational
Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it's a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands.Collection: People
Raising children who are hopeful and who have the courage to be vulnerable means stepping back and letting them experience disappointment, deal with conflict, learn how to assert themselves, and have the opportunity to fail. If we’re always following our children into the arena, hushing the critics, and assuring their victory, they’ll never learn that they have the ability to dare greatly on their own.Collection: Children
When we can let go of what other people think and own our story, we gain access to our worthiness—the feeling that we are enough just as we are and that we are worthy of love and belonging. When we spend a lifetime trying to distance ourselves from the parts of our lives that don’t fit with who we think we’re supposed to be, we stand outside of our story and hustle for our worthiness by constantly performing, perfecting, pleasing, and proving. Our sense of worthiness—that critically important piece that gives us access to love and belonging—lives inside of our story.Collection: Letting Go
I now see how owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do.Collection: Motivational