Gwyneth x Brené Brown On the Root of Shame, Courage and Vulnerability

I listened to "Gwyneth x Brené Brown: On the Roots of Shame, Courage, and Vulnerability" in Apr 2019 right before listening to "The Anatomy of Trust". I became a super fan of Dr. Brené Brown when I first heard her "Daring Greatly" from Oprah's SuperSoul Conversation. Her research on shame was brilliant. It answered so many unanswered questions and helped me to get clearer views on many situations, confusing thoughts and emotions. When I found this podcast by chance, I jumped right in because I also was a big fan of Gwyneth Paltrow. What a magical combination! Dr. Brené Brown was easy and fun to listen. Her insight on shame and how she articulates about them was a work of art to me. Also, listening to Gwyneth' voice was calming and meditating that the podcast went flying. This podcast is an hour long and it has lots of juicy contents in it. It is hard to absorb all at once. I remember I had listened a couple of times and taken notes while pausing it here and there.

In this podcast, Brené is talking about how we can lead and live from a place of vulnerability. As a mom with 2 kids, I always feel a pressure of being a good example. It puts me in a position to be a leader to my kids. They look up to me and absorb everything what I have in front of their little eyes. Like Gwyneth mentioned, being a parent is being revealed what you have unhealed. I got to realize how much worse than I thought I was. That's where the 4 skill set to be a great leader comes in. We were taught that vulnerability is weakness. Being vulnerable is dangerous. However, you can't be a great leader if you don't embrace vulnerability because leader needs courage and courage requires vulnerability.

Brené mentions 4 skill set to be a courageous leader.

1. Being able to be vulnerable
2. Living upto your value
3. Braving trust
4. How to rise after a fall

I believe this skill set was so true to all those great leaders from being a leader of yourself to a leader of a cooperate company or even a nation.

While each one of skill is tough to achieve, to me the most challenging skill is being vulnerable. It's hard to face the truth about myself, not being perfect rather having lots of wounds and flaws. To me facing and acknowledging my flaws or mistakes means being weak and vulnerable. I'm putting myself in a danger of getting hurt. So often I try to be perfect and set a goal of being perfect person(although it's impossible).

Brené says perfectionism is a defense mechanism that we carry in order to protect ourselves from getting hurt. But what it actually does is protect us from being seen. It's coming out of fear. It's not courageous. First, we face our vulnerability and shame, and have them acknowledged, then we can truly be courageous and move on. I really think all her foundings are truly amazing and brilliant. It really helps me to identify, face myself and stand for myself so that I can grow to a bigger me as a woman, a spouse and a mom.