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Listening to shame | Brené Brown (2012)

Vulnerability:

• Vulnerability is not weakness. It is our most accurate measure of courage.
• Vulnerability is the birthplace of
  • innovation,
  • creativity, and
  • change.

Shame: has focus on self.  Guilt is focus on behavior.

1. Shame has two scripts:
   • You are never good enough.
   • Who do you think you are?
2. Shame is correlated with:
   • addiction,
   • depression,
   • violence,
   • aggression,
   • bullying,
   • suicide,
   • eating disorders.
3. Shame is organized by gender:
   • For women is not being able to do it all perfectly while never letting them see you sweat.
   • Shame for men is appearing weak.
4. Shame is fed by
   • secrecy,
   • silence, and
   • judgement.

The antidote to Shame is Empathy.

The power of vulnerability: TEDx Houston (2011)

(Jan 2011) Brené Brown studies human connection — our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. A talk to share.

 

Brené Brown: Create True Belonging and Heal the World with Lewis Howes (2017)

 

Whenever there is not love and belonging there is suffering.

Belonging:

• Belonging is being part of something bigger than yourself, but belonging is also the courage to stand alone.
• Belonging never asks us to change who we are.
• Fitting in can mean betraying yourself if it asks us to change who we are to belong.

Teams and Groups can deliver the illusion of belonging.

If you become so adaptable that the goal of adapting is to make you like me, you betray yourself.

There are two kinds of kids:

1. Kids who ask for help
2. Kids who don’t

Lewis: my way was of asking was getting angry, mad, and lashing out, turning fear into rage and ploughing over others

• In 3rd or 4th grade, Lewis was shamed by getting picked last in a dodgeball game
• He turned his loss into fuel for athletics, eventually playing football in the NFL.
• He felt like every loss was an attack on his life because he feared he couldn’t be accepted.

Vulnerability

• Involves: uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure
• You can’t be a courageous leader if you aren’t willing to be uncomfortable

The ability to opt-out of talking about Charlottesville and having it “not affect her” is the definition of privilege.

• Charlottesville is about powerlessness

I can’t imagine a way though the next decade that doesn’t involve dealing with pain. (34 min)

James Baldwin: people hold on to their hate so stubbornly because once they let it go their is nothing but pain.

After a difficult breakup while at college, Lewis took out his rage on the football field.

Every social crisis, almost without exception, is about our inability to deal with our pain:

• Opioids: physicians
• Medicated, addicted, in debt, obese.

Our inability to deal with pain and vulnerability is what leads to many problems.

The football team that acknowledges its vulnerabilities will be more successful.

Charlottesville comes down to identity, belonging, and power.

• This is the concept of “power-over”‘s last stand
• last stands are violent, desperate
• nostalgic: “It was so much better when people knew their place”

We can’t solve the next issues with national solutions

 

Vulnerability is not weakness.  It is about the willingness to be seen when you can’t control the outcome.

When you experience shame:

• Talk to yourself like you talk to someone you love.
• Talk to someone else: shame can not respond to being spoken

You either own your story or it owns you.

What is Greatness?

• Greatness is owning your story and loving yourself though that.

 

Brené Brown Shows You How To “Brave the Wilderness” (2017)

(Warning: There is swearing in this video)

 

Dehumanization is not a social justice tool (15 min)

Police-Protester Dichotomy: shaming us for not hating the right people.

I’m not going to let my imperfection move me away from the conversation because its too important

I contributed more than I criticized.

There is a difference between holding people accountable and shame.

Shame is not a strategy.  It will hurt them and you.  Shame begets shame.

Holding people accountable is not as much fun as raging against them.

There should be more tools in your tool bag than shame and coddling. (25 min)