Happiness tip 2: vulnerability
By Jena Griffiths | February 5, 2013
“Vulnerability is the core of shame and fear and our struggle for worthiness
but it’s also the birthplace of joy, of creativity, of belonging, of love” – Brene Brown
I don’t know about you, but I really suck when it comes to asking for help or showing my vulnerable side.
Yet it turns out that having the courage to be vulnerable – to risk being hurt, or getting it wrong or showing up – is the key to just about everything in life.
Here’s a great TEDX video worth watching: Brene Brown on the power of vulnerability
“Vulnerability is a most accurate measurement of courage” – Brene Brown
Do you have the courage to be imperfect?
The courage to be kind and gentle to yourself?
The courage to let go of who you think you should be for what you are?
Brene says that the people who have got things right and are living joyful wholehearted lives talk about vulnerability as being not only important but essential.
She asks are you willing to say I love you first?
To invest in a relationship that may not work out?
To risk seeing others smirk and say ‘I told you so’?
Or even to ask for help?
Action steps you can take right now
1. Find friends who are willing to watch you walk into uncertainty, who’ll support you for being vulnerable and brave rather than try to keep you small and safe.
2. Be someone who says: “But you were brave” rather than someone who says “I told you so.” when someone has the courage to follow a dream.
Brene says, “The greatest pain I have seen in my work comes from people who have spent their lives on the outside of the arena wondering. What would have happened if I had showed up?”
Do all you can not to be that person.
“I live in the space of vulnerability and that is what has made me so successful.”
Oprah Winfrey
Hand analysis tip
Fear of vulnerability shows up in a number of ways on hands.
For example, doubling (armor) on the heart line or Apollo attack lines or a crooked pinkie finger (holding your cards close too your chest).
But sometimes another kind of weakness shows up and that’s the desire to not be weak at all, but rather the opposite. To be self reliant to the point of disservice to yourself and others. Read more about the “I’ll do it myself thumb” here.
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Topics: Fear of success/ fear of failure, Hand Analysis, Relationship problems, self esteem, Showing Up | 1 Comment »
February 5th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
[…] from others as well as stress or even burnout. For more on this see my Earth School post on the power of vulnerability. It includes a great video by Brene Brown who says “Vulnerability is the core of shame and fear […]