No Limits, Just Epiphanies

This is one of about 8 bajillion videos based on the research of Dr. Brené Brown (whose website you can find here, and whose viral TEDtalks can be viewed here. She also has written a few books which you can find on her website if you fall as deeply in love with her work as I have.)



To give a quick summary of the work of Brené Brown, allow me to use a few simple equations.

Ashamed or afraid person + Ashamed or afraid person = disconnection

Vulnerable person + Vulnerable person = connection

connection = wholehearted person

Here are a few key points I love about Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW:

-If all those letters weren't written behind her name, you may not even know she's a research scientist. She makes her work unbelievably accessible and understandable for even the average Joe. And she uses examples and phrases that you would actually hear coming out of someone's mouth, not a dusty, boring textbook paragraph.

-The way she talks make you feel like you're grabbing lunch with an old friend who has some outstanding advice, not a doctorate-holding research professor at a graduate school of Social Work who is trying to tell you how to live your life. Even though she covers some dauntingly hard-to-swallow topics, she somehow just puts you at ease.

-I honestly believe that "catching this wave" can change lives. For the better. The issues she addresses just hit home for anyone who has a heartbeat. "Shame is easily understood as the fear of disconnection." If you've never felt afraid, ashamed, or disconnected, then this blog post is not for you. Otherwise, I encourage and fully support the spreading of the work of Dr. Brené Brown.

Some of my favorite quotes of hers:

Basically, my version of the moral of the Brené Brown story is that according to the world (and far too often, according to myself) I may never be

Pretty enough

Unique enough

Skinny enough

Strong enough

Smart enough

Creative enough

Tough enough

Sensitive enough

Wise enough

But it doesn't matter. Because what the most vulnerable of vulnerable allows me to say is:

I am enough.  

Me. 

Not because of what I can do, or the important people I know, or the things I like.

Just me. 

And once a person can see that they are worthy of love and belonging, they can start helping other people embrace that truth as well. Because when you are working from a place of  owning your worthiness, it sure feels a lot different than working from a place where you are constantly trying to prove it.

And if that's not a message we each need to hear, I don't know what is.