Do yourself a favor and watch Brené Brown’s TED talk on Netflix, The Call to Courage. The researcher, professor and best-selling author stopped by On Air With Ryan Seacrest on Thursday, June 6, and broke down her findings on vulnerability, the issue with creating narratives in your head and why people are now afraid to be happy.
Brown explained that after 20+ years of research, she’s come to realize that it all boils down to vulnerability.
“These people who believe in themselves share in common … vulnerability,” Brown said, explaining that “vulnerability is the center of everything … and vulnerability is just uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure — that’s all it is — to feel uncertain, at risk and emotionally exposed.”
Brown added that the issue is we are raised to not be vulnerable and that vulnerability is seen as a weakness.
“There is no courage without vulnerability,” however, Brown reiterated.
The New York Times best-selling author also touched upon happiness and has found that of all these emotions, “joy is actually the most vulnerable of all human emotions.”
Brown explained that people are scared to get hurt which is hindering them living life to the fullest.
“We are so afraid that if we let ourselves lean into it, that we will get sucker punched by hurt and pain and disappointment,” Brown continued. “So in those moments, like, for parents, when you’re standing over your kid and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I love you like I didn’t know was possible’ and then you picture something horrible happening to your child or the first time I got to meet Oprah, I was flying out and I was like, ‘There’s no way this plane will make it.’ So what we do in order to protect ourselves is we dress rehearse tragedy … we don’t want to be blindsided by pain.”
People are so scared to be hurt, Brown added, they’re ultimately living in a zone of mediocrity in a sense.
“The most tragic thing I’ve seen in the last five years especially is so many people now choosing to live disappointed rather than live joyful and risk feeling disappointed,” Brown shared. “You miss the mountaintops … The brokenhearted are the bravest among us because they have the courage to love because they put themselves out there … there’s nothing really more powerful than a skinned and bruised heart."
Watch back the full video above for more and to hear Brown’s advice for Sisanie, who admitted that she has a hard time saying “I’m sorry.”
Stream The Call to Courage on Netflix now.