Ted Tuesday: Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability

“You’re imperfect, and you’re wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” Brené Brown studies vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame.

Good Morning Folks.

Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame.

Her 2010 TEDx Houston talk on the power of vulnerability is one of the most watched talks on TED.com, with over 18 million views. She gave the closing talk, Listening to Shame,  at the 2012 TED Conference in Long Beach.

Brené is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (2012). She is also the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Gifts of Imperfection (2010), and I Thought It Was Just Me (2007).

Brené is also the founder and CEO of The Daring Way – a teaching and certification program for helping professionals who want to facilitate her work on vulnerability, courage, shame, and worthiness.

Brené Brown studies human connection — our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk, 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.

Here’s the thing: Brown: A few years ago she had a nervous breakdown and started to see a therapist. 'The therapist said to me, “You have to embrace your vulnerability,” and I was like, “Screw that.”’

In her new book she writes, 'We are hardwired to connect with others, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives… Before I knew it, I had been hijacked by my research participants who, when asked to talk about their most important relationships and experiences of connection, kept telling me about heartbreak, betrayal and shame – the fear of not being worthy of real connection.’

As part of her work she tried first to understand why a handful of people believe in their own worthiness; she calls these people 'Wholehearted’. She loses me a bit here. Is Wholehearted another word for happy, I ask her? 'No,’ she says adamantly. 'In fact I think our capacity for Wholeheartedness can never be greater than our willingness to be broken-hearted. It means engaging with the world from a place of vulnerability and worthiness. It’s about being all in, saying, “I’m here and I’m going to love you fully and if you cheat on me you’re going to devastate me and break my heart, but I’m not holding back because this is short.”’

Tears spring to her eyes as she says this. In fact, it was her realization that she herself fell far short of Wholehearted that tipped her over the edge.

Have a look at Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability:

Brené Brown is an absolute legend. This is groundbreaking - not in terms of peoples awareness of these subjects and what they mean... But in these messages enhanced communication made accessible to a wider audience on this level. Really awesome stuff.

Thanks to The Telegraph for inspiring me to watch this talk, and to you for listening.

Have a GREAT Day,



Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer  

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x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)