Monday, June 18, 2012

Snape and Vulnerability

I had two reminders about Brene Brown this week.  One was when a friend posted on FB about "Defense Against the Dark Arts."








Here's a snippet from that post, to give you a sense of what a "shame researcher" is:


We shared a laugh about his Snape projection, then things got more serious. “What you said really made sense to me. Especially the part about us being so afraid of the dark stuff. What’s the quote that you shared from your book - the one with the picture of the twinkle lights?”
“Oh, the twinkle light quote: ‘Only when we’re brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.’”

She talks a lot about vulnerability.  And when another friend asked me if I'd read any of her books, I said, "I haven't read any of her books, just her blog.  And I like what I've read so far..... I was going to say I "like" what she has to say about vulnerability.  But, that's really not the truth: I find what she has to say about vulnerability very unsettling, which I guess is the point.  It feels hard to put into practice.  But I can see the rewards of doing it."

As Brene Brown says

“Yes. Shame resilience is key to embracing our vulnerability. We can’t let ourselves be seen if we’re terrified by what people might think. Often ‘not being good at vulnerability’ means that we’re damn good at shame.”

 Big stuff. But as you all know, Snape is my hero! 


1 comment:

Elysia said...

Have we discussed this already? I bought her most recent book, the one that she was shilling when her Tedtalk went viral last year.

This one: http://www.amazon.com/The-Gifts-Imperfection-Supposed-Embrace/dp/159285849X/ref=la_B001JP45BA_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340649526&sr=1-1

I couldn't finish it. It was pablum, the same info as the Tedtalk but drawn out over hours and hours (not as effective). I wanted one thing: practical advice on how to put her ideas into action.

There was none of that to be found in the first third of the book.