When you ask people about love, they’ll tell you about heartbreak. When you ask people about belonging, they’ll tell you about how they have been excluded. When you ask people about connection, the stories they’ll tell you are about disconnection.
Interesting, right? We always first recall the negative experiences in life and mute the positive memories.
Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston and the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, and Dare to Lead.
In her TED Talk: The power of vulnerability, she outlines the following four life-changing practices that can help us live worthy, wholehearted life, stop recalling only the heartbreak, pain and disconnection, but find the joy and happiness:
- Have a sense of COURAGE – when communicating with others tell the story of who you really are and accept your imperfections.
- Practice COMPASSION – treat yourself kindly first and then treat others with compassion.
- Develop CONNECTION as a result of authenticity – willingness to let go of who you think you should be in order to be who you are.
- Embrace VULNERABILITY – give without expecting anything in return, share anything without the fear of being judged, open yourself to people you love, because you are worthy of the same love. If we don’t allow to be vulnerable, we block the joy, gratitude and happiness, and feel worse.
If you want to learn more how to live with courage an vulnerability, check out Dr. Brown’s book
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Nadia Karaboycheva 