A post from our Community Correspondent Emily McCurrie @caminosmem
I’m really proud of learning, what I believe, has been the most important lesson in my life so far. I’m proud of learning how to be vulnerable. This means many different things to me and has mostly been spurred by Brene Brown, a shame and vulnerability researcher who became famous for a 20 minute TED talk which totally resonated with me ( you can watch a video of this talk below).
After seeing this short talk, where I cried heartily, I bought Brene’s book, ‘Daring Greatly’. She’s helped me to learn that allowing myself to be vulnerable is NOT a sign of weakness. In fact, it always requires great courage and strength. And that’s something to be proud of.
So for me, being vulnerable can mean:
– saying I’m scared
– telling my family and friends that I love them
– admitting when I get something wrong
– telling people when I feel blue, even when there’s no good reason for it
– telling someone I’m hurt even if it means they may dismiss or laugh at what I say
– crying in front of others
– saying ‘I miss you’
These are only a few of the things I’m proud of under my umbrella of ‘being vulnerable’. It’s also meant leaving behind old behaviours of putting on a brave face, always feeling the need to look strong, laughing things off and hiding my true feelings. It’s draining. I feel like I have more energy just by always being true to myself, regardless of how I’m feeling. I find others start to do it too – this vulnerability thing is catching!
I’m proud of being able to be vulnerable because by doing it, I’ve seen just how strong I can be.
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