{ book review : daring greatly }

When I received Daring Greatly by Brene Brown 

to review for the BlogHer Book Club 

my first reaction was "A whole book about what??"

That's because this book is about vulnerability.

The entire thing. 

I thought it was kind of silly but I had to read it anyway.

I'm the typical "I don't do vulnerability" person that the author makes mention of a couple of times.

If you want someone who puts up a wall in the face of emotion,

I'm your girl.

For me, vulnerability feels like I want to crawl out of my skin 

and hide in a closet until the moment passes.

It feels uncomfortable.

It feels like I wish whatever is happening could just be entirely forgotten.

I feel this way when a situation arises that I don't have control over.

A family crisis. 

An uncomfortable conversation with a friend.

When someone calls me out on a fault. 

When a situation comes up that makes me fearful.

I especially feel this way when I have to confront emotions. 

I'm not good with emotions. 

I don't like to talk about emotions. 

|| via Katie Courics tumblr || 

It's funny, I'm not sure if I had thought about any of this in detail before I read Daring Greatly.

I appreciated the opportunity that the book provided to reflect on vulnerability

and taking some things away from it that will make me more comfortable with being vulnerable.

I especially took away one thing... it was just one paragraph in the entire book

but it stuck with me.

"We love seeing raw truth and openness in other people, but we're afraid to let them see it in us. We're afraid that our truth isn't enough- that what we have to offer isn't enough without bells and whistles, without editing and impressing." p 47 

So often we see others facing moments of vulnerability 

maybe on a stage or on a blog post or in a conversation

and we say to ourselves

"how brave they are! how courageous they are!"

yet when we get the opportunity to do the same 

we feel shameful, we feel scared, we feel like we're not enough

we feel like we can't do what others do.

why? why do we see the courage in others but not in ourselves?

I think if anything this book just provided an opportunity for self-reflection

maybe to plant the seed in a readers' my mind

that maybe we are I am  enough and thus allow "to be seen."

How courageous would we all be if we allowed that to happen?

To find out more about Daring Greatly 
check out the BlogHer Book Club page and join the conversation

Disclosure: This is a paid review from the BlogHer Publishing Network,

however all the opinions I share are my own.