Tag: Brene Brown

Sometimes it has to be uncomfortable

Posted on by philipdodson

Sometimes as humans we need to discuss awkward and uncomfortable things.

We can choose to head to Netflix or pretend they are not there, but that is ducking out of our responsibility to our fellow humans and is letting ourselves down too.

We all form the world that we live in and that means that each and every one of us needs to be part of the dialogue.

There is a great Facebook Live with Brene Brown, whose work I am a great fan of, and she is discussing the very touchy subject of race and it is well worth a 20-minute watch – click here. This clearly demonstrates the point and she puts it with greater depth and eloquence.

We need to discuss, not hate or criticise, difficult topics, as that is the only way to move forward as a human race. We’ve tried the authoritarian and hate approach and it has been a miserable failure so far.

Next time there is a challenging and uncomfortable thing to discuss, we need to step up and get involved, why wouldn’t you?

Writing our thoughts and changing the story

Posted on by philipdodson

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When we feel emotions or hurt, our initial response is to create a story that protects us. It’s built into our genes, the chimp brain goes into protection mode.

We don’t yet have all the data and therefore we fill in the gaps and make up a story that we then believe is the truth. The story is based on protecting ourselves without having the full picture.

This often leads to the wrong conclusions, which we act upon and this can then lead to hurt and pain for others based on our actions.

A better and more challenging thing to do is to write about these stories on a daily basis, this way we get out all the emotion and we are then able to analyse the story and perhaps realise we do not have all the facts or data to come to the conclusions we did.

A daily writing journal has so many other benefits, but the biggest one is that we get a chance to re-write our stories and get to the real truths. If you need a place to write then check out 750Words.com

Thanks to Brene Brown and her continued brilliant work on worthiness, vulnerability, and wholeheartedness. We can learn how to lean into our emotions, own them, become curious about them and write a different ending.