Brene Brown
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Sitting it out
“No one reaches out to you for compassion or empathy so that you can teach them how to behave better. They reach out to you because they believe in your capacity to know their darkness well enough to sit in the dark with them.” ~ Brene Brown, The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage Being fully human means you’re going to experience bouts of disappointment, anger, and sadness. Someone will say or do something that hurts or alienates you. Or you might say something insensitive and hurtful to someone else. As hard as we try to avoid emotional collisions, we all stumble on conflicts we can’t fix,…
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Being vulnerable
“I spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite, black and white, good and bad. My inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are also wrought with uncertainty: Love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity to name a few.” ~Brene Brown For a while there, Doug and I were feeling smug (or invincible) because we’d dodged the COVID-19 bullet for so long. We got our vaccines, avoided unnecessary risks, and wore masks when necessary. Our close friends and family members have been careful, too, although many of them caught the damned virus anyway.…
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Fearless living
“I want to be brave with my life. When we make the choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.” ~Brene Brown, Daring Greatly I never wanted to be a professional actor, but I don’t regret a minute of the time I spent in the performing arts. When I was a kid, I acted, danced, and sang (badly) in dramas and musicals. I was, as my parents liked to say, “an incorrigible ham.” But just as my folks had hoped, the performing arts gave me confidence. By…
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Wilderness survival
“There will be times when standing alone feels too hard, too scary, and we’ll doubt our ability to make our way through the uncertainty. Someone, somewhere, will say, ‘Don’t do it. You don’t have what it takes to survive the wilderness.’ This is when you reach deep into your wild heart and remind yourself, ‘I am the wilderness.’” ~Brene Brown Today’s quote reminds me of the time I quit my office job in reference book publishing to start freelance writing at home. In those days, working from home wasn’t as common, so my decision felt risky (and lonely) at first. It took time to establish a new routine and get…
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Building better boundaries
“Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love and respect ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.” ~Brene Brown All of us need boundaries. While social connection is essential to our well-being, there are times when we have to draw an invisible line between ourselves and others. This can be a challenge, especially in a tell-all culture that’s become addicted to social media and digital devices. Boundaries help us define our limits and foster emotional balance. Offline and online, healthy boundaries show others that we won’t accept cruel or careless treatment, dishonesty, insults, inflammatory gossip, or other signs of disrespect. We need boundaries to maintain family harmony and…
