I just watched Brene Brown’s Ted Talk on Listening to Shame. She talks about vulnerability, not as a weakness, but as strength and courage. Vulnerability is being open, being seen as who you are.

She talks about not being afraid of failure, how many people who succeed fail quite often and keep going. It is hearing the voice that “you are not good enough” or “what makes you think you can do that” and doing it anyway. Shame is what keeps us from being vulnerable.

I think we learn many ways to hide who we are. I call them personas, or masks or roles. For example: the rebel- who acts like they doesn’t really care what others think, or the small, quiet role- the one who doesn’t get noticed and tries to hide from others. There are a lot of roles that people learn in order to hide who they are from others.

In what ways do you hide who you are? Are there certain people that you share yourself with? And others that you hide yourself away? Do you put on a happy face when you aren’t? Do you only show certain parts to certain people?

Here is the link if you want to check her out:                                                                   http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame.html