Article Summary: The Power Of Vulnerability, By Brene Brown

Brene Brown talked about “The Power of Vulnerability”. While in college as a Doctoral student she had a professor that said, “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist”. She thought this is the career for me because she was interested in some messy topics, but she wants to make them not messy. She started with connection, because that is why we are here, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to life.

When you ask people about love, they tell you about heartbreak; when you ask them about belonging, they will tell you the most excruciating experiences of being excluded; when you ask them about connection, the stories they told were about disconnection. About six weeks into her research she ran into this unnamed thing that absolutely unraveled connection, so she had to pull out to figure out what it was. It turned out to be shame, it is understood as the fear of disconnection. What underpinned this was excruciating vulnerability, this idea of in order for connection we have to let ourselves be seen, really seen.
The only difference between those that struggle for it and those who have a strong since of love and belong; believe they are worthy. She took all the interviews that felt they had worthiness. She wanted to see what they had in common, the had the courage to be imperfect, they had the compassion to kind to themselves first and then others, and they had connection as the result of authenticity. The other thing they had in common was they fully embraced vulnerability; they believed what made them vulnerable made them beautiful. She stated that the definition of research is to control and predict, her research turned up the answer to live with vulnerability and not to control and predict. This led to a break down and she put her research away and found a