Brown has spent nearly two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. All of her groundbreaking findings were included in five books that have easily become #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, and Dare to Lead.
“The Power of Vulnerability” is about expanding perception and embracing our imperfections. Brown’s’s approach on how to cultivate courage, compassion, and connection turned a data presentation into one of the top five most-viewed TED talks of all time.
Brown has received numerous teaching awards including the Graduate College of Social Work’s Outstanding Faculty Award. She is also the first person to have a filmed talk available on Netflix: The Call to Courage.
Due to her research, Brown has become an inspiration for millions of people around the world.
Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.
Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.
What we don’t need in the midst of struggle is shame for being human.
You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.
Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.
Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.
We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.
The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.
Don’t try to win over the haters; you are not a jackass whisperer.
Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.
To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly.
Vulnerability is not about winning or losing. It’s having the courage to show up even when you can’t control the outcome.
Talk about your failures without apologizing.
Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It’s the fear that we’re not good enough.
Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.
Want to be happy? Stop trying to be perfect.
Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others.
If we share our shame story with the wrong person, they can easily become one more piece of flying debris in an already dangerous storm.
We don’t have to do all of it alone. We were never meant to.
The willingness to show up changes us, It makes us a little braver each time.
Even to me the issue of ‘stay small, sweet, quiet, and modest’ sounds like an outdated problem, but the truth is that women still run into those demands whenever we find and use our voices.
Just because someone isn’t willing or able to love us, it doesn’t mean that we are unlovable.
You cannot shame or belittle people into changing their behaviors.
Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do than what we know about parenting.
Courage is like—it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: You get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.
