Courage, Compassion and Belonging

My wonderful blogsister Louise at Recover Your Joy posted a terrific video by Brene Brown last week.  It's about wholeheartedness as an alternative to shame and vulnerability, and I wanted to share it with you here because it's definitely brought both light and a little lightness of heart into my life.

This morning I started reading her book, The Gifts of Imperfection (which is appropriately subtitled "Let go of who you think you're supposed to be and embrace who you are") and I can already see what a gift this is going to be.

This morning, for example, she's talking about the importance of courage, compassion, and belonging, and she says this:

"Courage sounds great, but we need to talk about how it requires us to let go of what other people think, and for most of us, that's scary.  Compassion is something we all want, but are we willing to look at why boundary-setting and saying no is a critical component of compassion?  Are we willing to say no, even if we're disappointing someone?  Belonging is an essential component of Wholehearted living, but first we have to cultivate self-acceptance -- why is this such a struggle?"

Why, indeed! How lovely it would be to peel away all those surface needs to please people and come to love the warts and moles that lie beneath that protective skin... I can see this will be a delightful adventure -- and I really like the idea of getting better at living wholeheartedly.  So, stay tuned -- and have a terrific day!