Last Wednesday I drove to Charlotte, NC with a dear friend to see Brené Brown speak. We drove NINE hours round trip for an hour & a half talk. She’s THAT good!
Brené is a researcher storyteller who studies shame and vulnerability. We all have these feelings to varying degrees and I see clearly how they play a large role in how we take (or don’t take) care of ourselves. If you haven’t seen her TedxHouston video, please stop and watch it right now. It will move you, I promise.
Our national culture engenders a lot of body shame. If you’re not a certain height, weight, look, or shape we’re told, by media & people, to buy body-altering products & services, exercise like a maniac, starve ourselves with manufactured food-like products or just stay home.
It’s pure madness. Don’t fall for it!
I’ve been reading Brené’s new book titled Daring Greatly. So far I’ve laughed, cried, underlined often, shouted an internal YES! frequently and read many passages out loud to my husband. Brené’s work is simply brilliant & timely. I highly recommend you read it if you’re ready to shake off your shame and be enough.
I am enough by Brené Brown
Brené’s work is helpful in learning how to be what I call HAPPY™: a Healthy, Active Positively Perfect You! By perfect I mean perfect by your standards, not that of the nation, your family or your friends. A world full of HAPPY™ people feeling strong, healthy, rested, confident, purposeful & kind would be a delight, wouldn’t it?
Also, Dr. Rick Hanson, who I quoted last week, is offering a free 7-part video series starting October 8th called The Compassionate Brain. Each week he and his guests will talk about how the mind can change the brain to transform the mind to open the heart, build courage, find compassion, forgive oneself and others, speak and act from both kindness and strength, and heal the world. You can learn more about this opportunity here.
I believe that our struggles with body image and/or our food lifestyle come from a very deep place within ourselves that operates poorly when wounded and optimally when we’re feeling strong. We can learn to become more resilient, less affected by external messages and stay true to our authentic self with help from resources like Brené and Dr. Rick.
When we’re more resilient & not thrown off our centers easily we will less often grab for the cookies, hunker down with the ice cream, numb with alcohol, get mindless with a bag of chips or stuff ourselves silly so that we feel like a swaddled baby inside out (tight from the inside). We can learn how to deal with our feelings without involving food or drink. We can learn to sit with shame and love it out of our center space then move on to make healthful choices that are kind.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Lovely observations, Carla. I especially like your comment of being swaddled from the inside out! Funny you should bring up the issue of brain chemistry as I have recently become very interested in the topic & have just started reading “Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: how to lose your mind and create a new one” by Dr. Joe We’ll see! I think proper nutrition plays a huge part of healing one’s brain chemistry, too, which helps facilitate changing neural pathways. Thanks again for another terrific post!
Thx Cyd! I’m interested in your new book. Will check it out!