I've been watching a lot of Super Soul Sunday lately on the OWN network. For those that know me - you know I'm a big fan Oprah. It's been nice to have such a great show to watch on Sunday's... It's thought provoking, spiritual, uplifting, etc. I highly recommend you all check it out. You can watch the show on Oprah.com too of you don't have cable or satellite. She had an author on her show today called Brene Brown who wrote the book "Daring Greatly" and she has received over 8 million view on TED with her lecture about vulnerability.
The book starts out with this quote that I love:
“It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; Who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
President Theodore Roosevelt
Speech at the Sorbonne
April 23, 1910
I think vulnerability is a very interesting topic. As Brown says, most people are raised that vulnerability is a weakness, but it's so important to ask for what you need and have those hard conversations. Take the risk of being vulnerable and being yourself. You are beautiful! Show the world your beauty. Let people in. "You can't get to courage without walking through vulnerability. It [vulnerability] is the key to having meaningful relationships and intimacy," said Brown.
Brown also talked about how our culture lives in fear more than ever, and because of this - we are all less vulnerable and don't enjoy "joy" as much as we should. "The number one casualty of a scarcity culture is vulnerability. Get rid of fear. Be open [and vulnerable] enough to take the risk to fail. Let go of what people think."
By doing this and practicing gratitude she said we will all experience joy more deeply. "Don't forebode joy. Push harder into those moments of joy. Be vulnerable enough to enjoy joy. Practice gratitude." She said we cannot experience joy without gratitude and that a way to battle fear is by practicing gratitude. For example, if you are scared your plane will crash, just start being grateful about the fact that you have enough money to be in that plane and going where you are going in the first place.
I really enjoyed the discussion and can't wait to read "Daring Greatly"!
