Brené Brown says vulnerability is the "birthplace of trust, love, belonging, courage"
Best-selling author Brené Brown says "there's a lot of mythology about vulnerability, and the big one is that it's weakness." Her TED Talk on the power of vulnerability is one of the most popular ever with more than 39 million views. She's now hoping to spread her message about embracing our vulnerabilities in her new Netflix special, "Brené Brown: The Call to Courage."
"We don't understand that vulnerability is the center of hard emotions, the stuff that we don't want to feel especially at work. But it's also the birthplace of trust, love, belonging, courage," Brown said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."
In her Netflix special, Brown tells the audience: "There are millions of cheap seats in the world today filled with people who will never once step foot in that arena. They will never once put themselves out there. But they will make it a full-time job to hurdle criticism and judgment and really hateful things toward us. And we have got to get out of the habit of catching them and dissecting and holding them close to our hearts. We've got to let them drop on the floor."
"Don't grab that hurtful stuff from the cheap seats and pull it close," she adds. "Don't pull it anywhere near your heart."
Brown told "CBS This Morning" that in 22 years of doing her work she's "never seen the cheap seats like they are today."
Brown has two decades of experience researching courage, shame and empathy. "There is no courage without being all in. Like, if you can do something and not feel vulnerable, it's probably not that brave," she said.
But she said people can get used to be vulnerable and managing the discomfort. "Maybe in that way, bravery becomes a practice and feels less scary. But I think, I know for myself, every time I'm being brave, I feel scared," Brown said.
Hard things are born of vulnerability, whether it be heartbreak or grief of disappointment, she said.
"But love, joy, belonging, intimacy, trust, creating, innovation are also born," Brown said. "So when we armor up to block the hard stuff, that armor keeps all the experiences that bring meaning to our lives away as well."
For Brown, she'd rather risk the vulnerability than to ask herself at the end of her life: "What if I would have shown up? What if I would have said yes?"
"To me, that's more terrifying than putting myself out there," Brown said.