Brené Brown Quotes

Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.

~ Brené Brown

We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.

~ Brené Brown

Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.

~ Brené Brown

Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it's often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.

~ Brené Brown

When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice.

~ Brené Brown

If you own this story you get to write the ending.

~ Brené Brown

Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect.

~ Brené Brown

Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness.

~ Brené Brown

Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.

~ Brené Brown

The opposite of never enough isn't abundance or more than you could ever imagine. The opposite of scarcity is enough...

~ Brené Brown

Rather than risking feeling disappointed, they’re choosing to live disappointed.

~ Brené Brown

I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.

~ Brené Brown

At the exact time that our society embraces shaming, blaming, judgment, and rejection, it also holds acceptance and belonging as immensely important. In other words, it's never been more impossible to 'fit in,' yet 'fitting in' has never been more important and valued

~ Brené Brown

To be forgiven is to be loved

~ Brené Brown

When unconscious storytelling becomes out default, we often keep tripping over the same issue, staying down when we fall, and having different versions of the same problem in our relationships--we've got the story on repeat. Burton explains that our brains like predictable storytelling. He writes, In effect, well-oiled patterns of observation encourage our brains to compose a story that we expect to hear.

~ Brené Brown

Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives.

~ Brené Brown

It is easy to see how quickly expectations become layered, competitive and conflicting. This is how the shame web works. We have very few realistic options that allow us to meet any of these expectations. Most of the options that we do have feel like a double bind. When Marilyn Frye describes a double bind as a situation in which options are very limited and all of them expose us to penalty, censure or deprivation.

~ Brené Brown

Given the dark fears we feel when we experience loss, nothing is more generous and loving than the willingness to embrace grief in order to forgive. To be forgiven is to be loved.

~ Brené Brown

Even to me the issue of stay small, sweet, quiet, and modest sounds like an outdated problem, but the truth is that women still run into those demands whenever we find and use our voices.

~ Brené Brown

Women most often experience shame as a web of layered, conflicting, and competing social-community expectations. The expectations dictate who we should be, what we should be, how we should be.

~ Brené Brown

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.

~ Brené Brown

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

~ Brené Brown

Maybe stories are just data with a soul.

~ Brené Brown

Creativity is the way I share my soul with the world.

~ Brené Brown

When you look away from a homeless person, you diminish their humanity and your own.

~ Brené Brown

Maybe looking away is about privilege. I need to think harder and longer about my choices and recognize that choosing whom I see and whom I don't see is one of the most hurtful functions of privilege.

~ Brené Brown

Denying emotion is not avoiding the high curbs, it's never taking your car out of the garage. It's safe in there, but you'll never go anywhere.

~ Brené Brown

I think we can all agree that feeling shame is an incredibly painful experience. What we often don't realize is that perpetrating shame is equally as painful, and no one does that with the precision of a partner or a parent. These are the people who know us the best and who bear witness to our vulnerabilities and fears. Thankfully, we can apologize for shaming someone we love, but the truth is that those shaming comments leave marks. And shaming someone we love around vulnerability is the most serious of all security breaches. Even if we apologize, we've done serious damage because we've demonstrated our willingness to use sacred information as a weapon.

~ Brené Brown

Compassionate people are boundaried people.

~ Brené Brown

Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.

~ Brené Brown

What we know matters but who we are matters more.

~ Brené Brown

Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is cor - the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant To speak one's mind by telling all one's heart. Over time, this definition has changed, and today, we typically associate courage with heroic and brave deeds. But in my opinion, this definition fails to recognize the inner strength and level of commitment required for us to actually speak honestly and openly about who we are and about our experiences -- good and bad. Speaking from our hearts is what I think of as ordinary courage.

~ Brené Brown

Courage originally meant To speak one's mind by telling all one's heart.

~ Brené Brown

Ordinary courage is about putting our vulnerability on the line. In today’s world, that’s pretty extraordinary.

~ Brené Brown

People often silence themselves, or agree to disagree without fully exploring the actual nature of the disagreement, for the sake of protecting a relationship and maintaining connection. But when we avoid certain conversations, and never fully learn how the other person feels about all of the issues, we sometimes end up making assumptions that not only perpetuate but deepen misunderstandings, and that can generate resentment.

~ Brené Brown

When shame becomes a management style, engagement dies. When failure is not an option we can forget about learning, creativity, and innovation .

~ Brené Brown

Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.

~ Brené Brown

We're wired for story. In a culture of scarcity and perfectionism, there's a surprisingly simple reason we want to own, integrate, and share our stories of struggle. We do this because we feel the most alive when we're connecting with others and being brave with our stories - it's in our biology.

~ Brené Brown

Courage has a ripple effect. Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better and the world a little braver. And our world could stand to be a little kinder and braver.

~ Brené Brown

If you're thinking, 'Great! I just need to be a superhero to fight perfectionism,' I understand. Courage, compassion, and connection seem like big, lofty ideals. But in reality, they are daily practices that, when exercised enough, become these incredible gifts in our lives. And the good news is that our vulnerabilities are what force us to call upon these amazing tools. Because we're human and so beautifully imperfect, we get to practice using our tools on a daily basis. In this way, courage, compassion, and connection become gifts - the gifts of imperfection.

~ Brené Brown