- photo by Brene Brown
I AM ENOUGH. This is the conclusion of Brene Brown’s TED talk entitled The Power of Vulnerability.
Certainly this is not a statement we typically embrace. In fact, Brown notes that most of us are so entangled in the fear of vulnerability and imperfection that we resort to numbing our emotions.
She states, “We [Americans] are the most in debt, obese, addicted, and medicated adult cohort in US history. The problem is that you cannot selectively numb emotion. You can’t say, here’s the bad stuff – here’s vulnerability, grief, shame, fear, disappointment. I don’t want to feel these. I’m going to have a couple beers and a banana nut muffin…When we try to selectively numb our negative emotions, we inevitably numb other positive emotions such as joy, gratitude, and happiness…This leads to misery and a desperate search for purpose and meaning, which again leads us to feel vulnerable and numb ourselves with a couple beers and a banana nut muffin.”
Yes, it’s a vicious cycle – one that people who struggle with the tug-of-war between shoveling food in their mouths with reckless abandon and periods of restriction/deprivation, know all too well.
On a more optimistic note, she concludes that there is another way to live, in which you no longer feel compelled to numb yourself. On this path, you must learn to ” let yourself be seen – deeply seen – vulnerably seen – to love with your whole heart, even though there’s no guarantee – to practice gratitude and joy in those moments of terror – to be grateful for moments of vulnerability because they remind you that you are alive…the most important thing is to believe that you are enough.”
Yes, yes, much easier said than done, but what’s stopping you from stepping on the path of self-acceptance? Aren’t you tired of numbing yourself with food or lack of it? Of course, revolutionary change in our self-perception doesn’t happen overnight, but, all change starts with the first step. Only you know what that first step is for yourself. While you take a moment for reflection, read about one woman’s process to believe that she is enough,
and check out Brown’s Week of Worthiness project:
