Brené Brown Quotes

56 Sourced Quotes

.. the biggest mistake people make is not acknowledging fear and uncertainty.

Brené Brown
If we can share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding, shame can't survive.

Brené Brown
Guilt is just as powerful, but its influence is positive, while shame's is destructive. Shame erodes our courage and fuels disengagement.

Brené Brown
Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of
worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection
to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and
how much is left undone, I am enough. It's going to bed at night thinking,
Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn't
change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.

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

Brené Brown
You cannot shame or belittle people into changing their behaviors.

Brené Brown
Belonging is not fitting in... Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you're enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect. When we don't have that, we shape-shift and turn into chameleons; we hustle for the worthiness we already possess.

Brené Brown
Vulnerability is based on mutuality and requires boundaries and trust. It's not oversharing, it's not purging, it's not indiscriminate disclosure, and it's not celebrity-style social media information dumps. Vulnerability is about sharing our feelings and our experiences with people who have earned the right to hear them.

Brené Brown
If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.

Brené Brown
Connection is why we're here; it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives. The power that connection holds in our lives was confirmed when the main concern about connection emerged as the fear of disconnection; the fear that something we have done or failed to do, something about who we are or where we come from, has made us unlovable and unworthy of connection.

Brené Brown
Together we will cry and face fear and grief. I will want to take away your pain. But instead I will sit with you and teach you how to feel it.

Brené Brown
Healthy striving is about striving for internal goals, and wanting to be our best selves. Perfectionism is not motivated internally. Perfectionism is about what people will think. And you do not see effective leaders in corporations sitting on an email for three hours to make sure it's worded just perfectly. You don't. They have work to get done.. You don't see elite athletes letting themselves be discouraged by a bad workout or a single bad performance. It happens all the time. They're accustomed to winning, they're accustomed to losing. Once perfectionism becomes the goal, they're out of the sport.

Brené Brown
The thing that I have learned is that vulnerability is at the center of fear and shame, but it is also at the center of joy and gratitude and love and belonging... If we continue to wake up every day and put our game faces on and think that invulnerability is the way to be … then we pay the price, because I don't know that we would ever fully experience joy and love and belonging.

Brené Brown
Perfect and bulletproof are seductive, but they don't exist in the human experience.

Brené Brown
'Crazy-busy' is a great armor, it's a great way for numbing. What a lot of us do is that we stay so busy, and so out in front of our life, that the truth of how we're feeling and what we really need can't catch up with us.

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
The willingness to show up changes us, It makes us a little braver each time.

Brené Brown
Raising children who are hopeful and who have the courage to be vulnerable means stepping back and letting them experience disappointment, deal with conflict, learn how to assert themselves, and have the opportunity to fail. If we're always following our children into the arena, hushing the critics, and assuring their victory, they'll never learn that they have the ability to dare greatly on their own.

Brené Brown
I believe that owning our worthiness is the act of acknowledging that we are sacred. Perhaps embracing vulnerability and overcoming numbing is ultimately about the care and feeding of our spirits

Brené Brown
Shame derives its power from being unspeakable...If we speak shame, it begins to wither. Just the way exposure to light was deadly for the gremlins, language and story bring light to shame and destroy it.

Brené Brown
Shame hates to have words wrapped around it. If we talk about it, it loses its grip on us.

Brené Brown
Trust is a product of vulnerability that grows over time and requires work, attention, and full engagement.

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

Brené Brown
We judge people in areas where we're vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we're doing. If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people's choices. If I feel good about my body, I don't go around making fun of other people's weight or appearance. We're hard on each other because we're using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.

Brené Brown
We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time.

Brené Brown
I define vulnerability as uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure. With that definition in mind, let's think about love. Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can't ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment's notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow—that's vulnerability.

Brené Brown