Milton Keynes Personal and Professional Development Book Club – Daring Greatly – Brené Brown

Post event update

Brené Brown has spent years researching vulnerability, shame and how they relate to wholehearted living. You can see her speak about this on a video which has ‘gone viral’ here https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.

Daring Greatly in a nutshell:

Vulnerability and shame are uncomfortable emotions, and we do an awful lot to avoid them. Building resilience to vulnerability and shame encourage us to do very daring things; ‘putting ourselves out there’ to publish books, take on new assignments at work, admit you don’t know something, ask your crush out on a date, reach out for help when you need support and *ahem….shameless plug *attend book clubs out of curiosity to see whether we can learn something or make new friends. If you can build this resilience, the rewards are immense. Changing your values from ‘I must get everything perfectly right’ to ‘I must be courageous and put myself out there’ can help hugely with this.

We had an incredible discussion at the book club about how being vulnerable has helped us, and how hiding our vulnerabilities has hindered us. Whether it was Brené’s book which encouraged us to be open, or whether we all felt a connection and a safeness which allowed open communication for some other reason I am not sure, but it felt magical and enlightening. We even created a Whatsapp group to encourage each other to dare greatly in the future!

I also found myself being more vulnerable in conversations; opening up about things I’d kept safely away for years, with a huge releases taking place as I felt understood, my brain stopped its incessant chatter and I could live more authentically.

I highly recommend Brené’s books if you’re struggling with something due to a fear of vulnerability. She has some very sound arguments about why you should allow yourself to overcome this fear, and some great methods on how to do so, with plenty of stories of people she’s worked with to help them live an authentic life.

Our next book is the Chimp Paradox, with more information on how to build that emotional resilience we all want…come along on 17 April from 7-9pm at the Fountain Harvester to find out more!

Come and discuss this book on 13th March 2018, 7-9pm, Fountain Harvester, Milton Keynes.
Comment below or email me to let me know you’re going to join. Event is free and new members are always welcome.

Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston where she studies courage, vulnerability, empathy, and shame. Her talk on ‘The power of vulnerability’ has been viewed several million times (and I think I only make up a small percentage of those viewings…)

A line from Brené: “The bottom line: I believe that vulnerability – the willingness to be “all in” even when you know it can mean failing and hurting – is brave.”

Come and share your thoughts on how it fits (or doesn’t) with your experiences. If the book inspires you to be more vulnerable, let us know how that has changed things in your life.

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Every time we are introduced to someone new, try to be creative, or start a difficult conversation, we take a risk. We feel uncertain and exposed. We feel vulnerable. Most of us try to fight those feelings – we strive to appear perfect. In a powerful new vision Dr. Brené Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability, and dispels the widely accepted myth that it’s a weakness. She argues that, in truth, vulnerability is strength and when we shut ourselves off from vulnerability – fromrevealing our true selves – we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives.

Daring Greatly is the culmination of 12 years of groundbreaking social research, across every area of our lives including home, relationships, work, and parenting. It is an invitation to be courageous; to show up and let ourselves be seen, even when there are no guarantees.

This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly.