TED Talks: Listening to Shame / Vulnerability is Courage by Brené Brown

““Vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.”” — Brené Brown

I have watched this video and have to say it’s one of those with a great ‘takeaway message.’  Having grown up as I did, never really feeling good about myself I wondered why that was.  Surely I wasn’t born that way.

Watching this video opened up doors I never knew were closed.  I’d never realized how much shame I’ve been carrying all my life, and then add to that, a disability that makes me ‘different.’  In fact, one of the things I hate most about my disability is that I am vulnerable.  It’s scary, I feel like I can easily be taken advantage of, I don’t like it.

I found this video via NetworkedBlogs on Facebook.  I wish I could tell you who posted it, I’ve tried to go back and find it but it does not show older posts.  So to whomever posted it, thank you.  It is, as Oprah says, “An a-ha” or “light bulb moment.”

This video, along with the blessed souls I’ve met here on Word Press and reading the insightful, often arduous paths you’re on, is birthing new life in me.  It is awkward, it is uncomfortable, but it is the healing I’ve longed for all my life and was never really sure existed.

I am grateful to each and every one of you.  I’ll probably never be able to express my gratitude, I hope a simple Thank You will suffice for now and the knowledge I will pay-it-forward.

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame.html?quote=1404

The quote above hit me with such exacting precision it made my head spin.  Brené also makes another piercing comment about how she worked so hard for fifteen years to remain small.  Oh!  My!!  Gosh!!!

That is me.