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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
Im going to read this book again with a highlighter.
Brené Brown went viral with her TED Talk on vulnerability, and now her research is available in a much more in-depth form in Daring Greatly. Her findings are incredibly challenging while making complete sense. As she explains, vulnerability is not weakness, which is how it's usually viewed, but in fact that opposite. To hide behind masks and shields is to be weak, while the person who is willing to be exposed without hiding is the strong one. This is not the same as over-sharing; in fact, Brown breaks down why "TMI" is actually a form of armor and not a way of being vulnerable.
Aside from breaking down false beliefs about vulnerability, shame, and connection, Brown provides suggestions on ways to live as a "wholehearted" person -- what she calls the opposite of being consumed by shame and fear. These are taken directly from her research with such people, and the common thread that comes up again and again is that these are people who believe in their own self-worth.
This book contains insights into leadership, teaching, parenting, socialized gender roles, and every other way that our interactions with one another manifest themselves. Her research is thorough and her theories well-developed, but what most makes this book valuable is her writing style. She is conversational, even to the point of being unafraid to swear when it comes naturally. She includes many, many stories, not only from her research interviews but also from the conversations she has with people who attend her talks or read her writing, and stories from her own family. Brown manages to provide a model of wholehearted living while sharing plenty of stories of times she made mistakes, which makes her trustworthy because she is both practicing what she preaches and imperfect enough not to be written off as insincere.
There were plenty of moments while listening to this audiobook when I was cut to the core by how exactly Brown was able to describe experiences and feelings from my own life. She gets it. All of it. She will dig out your darkest places, and then help you understand how to transform them into light.
Aside from breaking down false beliefs about vulnerability, shame, and connection, Brown provides suggestions on ways to live as a "wholehearted" person -- what she calls the opposite of being consumed by shame and fear. These are taken directly from her research with such people, and the common thread that comes up again and again is that these are people who believe in their own self-worth.
This book contains insights into leadership, teaching, parenting, socialized gender roles, and every other way that our interactions with one another manifest themselves. Her research is thorough and her theories well-developed, but what most makes this book valuable is her writing style. She is conversational, even to the point of being unafraid to swear when it comes naturally. She includes many, many stories, not only from her research interviews but also from the conversations she has with people who attend her talks or read her writing, and stories from her own family. Brown manages to provide a model of wholehearted living while sharing plenty of stories of times she made mistakes, which makes her trustworthy because she is both practicing what she preaches and imperfect enough not to be written off as insincere.
There were plenty of moments while listening to this audiobook when I was cut to the core by how exactly Brown was able to describe experiences and feelings from my own life. She gets it. All of it. She will dig out your darkest places, and then help you understand how to transform them into light.
I first listened to this book about 9 years ago; this time around, I decided to try it in ebook format so I could highlight key lines, but ultimately I found that I could focus better with Brown explaining her research to me on audio, so I went back to that format. My first review focused on summarizing what this book encompasses: the interviews, statistics, and personal stories that Brown has compiled to show how our culture(s) — the United States culture as well as the cultures of our families, workplaces, and communities — can lead us to run from vulnerability and live steeped in shame instead, and what we can do to build resilience against this. This time around, I was struck more by how my own life has changed since I first read this book. Through a series of life-altering experiences, I feel like I was brought to a place of learning to be vulnerable and wholehearted. She's right; I still experience shame, because we all do, if we're not sociopathic. But gratitude, mindfulness, and surviving everything being torn down to the foundation have left me closer to the resilient thought patterns that she promotes in this book. So this time around, I will say that what Brown says here doesn't just make sense to me, but it resonates deeply with what I've experienced and found to be true. I think this is a great book to revisit periodically for a reminder of what truly matters when building a life.
Excellent! Helped me make sense of most of my childhood, many work settings, and provided me excellent ways to live a more meaningful life. I highly recommend this to anyone.
Not bad. Parts of it did seem to be redundant with the author's other books, which was mildly annoying. But there are still important principles here and, especially near the end, some practical advice.
The author talks about shame: we ALL feel it. It's different from guilt. You feel guilty when you've done something wrong. You feel shame when you feel that you are wrong, that you aren't good enough. I laughed when it got to the part about children repeating the lessons of their parents, saying things like "I may have made a mess, but I am not a mess!" or "She's not a bad dog! She's a good dog that made bad choices!"
The author talks about the differences in how men and women tend to feel and deal with shame, due to the cultural expectations each of us had. She briefly mentions a few coping techniques as an aside, but this book is - unfortunately - more about her observations of the science of shame, rather than a how-to book about living a better life overcoming shame.
The author talks about shame: we ALL feel it. It's different from guilt. You feel guilty when you've done something wrong. You feel shame when you feel that you are wrong, that you aren't good enough. I laughed when it got to the part about children repeating the lessons of their parents, saying things like "I may have made a mess, but I am not a mess!" or "She's not a bad dog! She's a good dog that made bad choices!"
The author talks about the differences in how men and women tend to feel and deal with shame, due to the cultural expectations each of us had. She briefly mentions a few coping techniques as an aside, but this book is - unfortunately - more about her observations of the science of shame, rather than a how-to book about living a better life overcoming shame.
This book definitely covers important topics and I appreciated that it addressed some of the gender differences in how men and women experience and process shame. However, I felt this book was more disorganized than most of Brown's other works and included a lot more of her unique names for scenarios than usual, which, in my opinion, made the information harder to digest. Still important, still relevant--just not as enjoyable as her other works.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown is in my opinion one of the most relevant epic tomes of this day and age. I am not easily moved to tears but I found myself with wet eyes at various times whilst reading this book. Shame and vulnerability are no easy topics especially when viewed through a lens of the self and this book helps to walk you through the journey thereof. It will no doubt be a book that I keep coming back to in order to inspire myself to dare greatly as the name suggests.