Shame

I love TED talks, and recently found one that really speaks to me.  I highly recommend checking out Brene Brown: Listening to Shame.  She is a wonderful speaker, and her topic seems really pertinent for so many people (including me).  She is a shame researcher – which I had never heard of before, but I can see there is a need for this research to be done.

This talk led me to her website, which led me to to purchase a couple of her books.  I have started I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Wasn’t), which I am loving.  Even though I am not very far into it yet, I wanted to share it with you.  So far I find it very thought-provoking, and have no reason to believe it won’t remain so as I get further into it.  I hope that you will watch her TED talk.  If you are so-inclined to read her books, I would love to hear what you think of them.

So far I have learned about shame triggers, and some questions to ask myself to bring me back to reality.  I look forward to finding out more ways to build shame resilience.

I will share one thing I read so far that really struck me.  In this book, Dr. Brown states that some of the most powerful words we can hear are “You are not alone” when trying to raise your critical awareness and increase your resilience to shame.    There is something about knowing that you are NOT the only one feeling what you’re feeling, or unable to meet the supposed norms of society, that can help you get out of the trap of shame.

I am curious, how do you see shame fitting into your life?  Is there anything good about it?  Do you have coping mechanisms for it? Have you developed ways to avoid it?   As always, I would love to hear from you.