Brené Brown Quotes

We cannot grow when we are in shame, and we can’t use shame to change ourselves or others.

Compassion is not a virtue; it is a commitment. It’s not something we have or don’t have, and it’s something we choose to practice.

Joy, collected over time, fuels resilience – ensuring we’ll have reservoirs of emotional strength when hard things do happen.

We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.

Empathy is the antidote to shame.

If there’s a feeling you have, other people have it. If there’s something weird about your life, other people have lived it. If there’s something kooky about your body, other people have that, too. We’re not alone. There’s some kind of tremendous relief in that and I think it can only be expressed in belly laughter. This tremendous relief that happens the millisecond we realize, it’s not just me. That’s what good laughter is about. It’s about knowing that you’re not alone.

We are hardwired to connect with others, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it there is suffering.

People may call what happens at midlife ‘a crisis,’ but it’s not. It’s an unraveling – a time when you feel a desperate pull to live the life you want to live, not the one you’re ‘supposed’ to live. The unraveling is a time when you are challenged by the universe to let go of who you think you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are.

Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.

Shame cannot survive being spoken. It cannot survive empathy.

We are so busy that the truth about our lives can’t catch up.

I spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite, black and white, good and bad. My inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are wrought with uncertainty: love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity, to name a few.