Posted by: Joan Brooks | April 3, 2013
Dr. Brene Brown Video on Shame
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted by: Joan Brooks | September 25, 2012
How to Reduce the Effects of Shame (Part 2)
This is the second article in a three-part series on reducing the effects of shame. In the first article, I described shame and shared a bit of shame’s effect on me. In this article I will explore how we have come to have so much shame. In the last one, I’ll help you discover ways to reduce shame.
A side note first: This is the first blog I’ve written that I haven’t received several comments. I know that even thinking about shame can be shameful, and as Maggie wrote in her comment, shame can make you want to turn away and distract yourself. That said, I hope you will reflect on what I’ve written in these articles and do what you can to reduce the effects of shame in your life, whether or not you write about it here.
So, how did we come to have so much shame in our bodies, our lives, and our culture? As they say in the world of psychology, shame is over determined. That means there are numerous sources of shame, pretty much ensuring that none of us go unscathed. Read More…
Posted in Shame | Tags: emotions, misogyny, patriarchy, shame, shaming, vulnerability
Posted by: Joan Brooks | August 28, 2012
How to Reduce the Effects of Shame (Part 1)
In this three-part series, I’m going to explain how you can reduce the effects of shame in your life. In this first article, I’ll describe shame and we’ll start exploring some of its debilitating effects on our lives.
In the next article, we’ll take a look at how we came to have so much shame. In the last article, I’ll help you discover ways to reduce shame that work for you.
Let’s begin.
Shame. Sometimes just the word is enough to trigger shame, to make your cheeks flush and your eyes look down at the ground.
Shame. It’s what keeps you from speaking up or telling someone trusted about the time you were raped, or even about the time you won an important award.
Shame: It disguises itself as the “inner critic” or “gremlin”, that perfectly reasonable voice that keeps you from making a fool of yourself. Except that voice is really your shame saying, “Don’t be too big” and “You’re not good enough.” Read More…
Posted in Shame | Tags: Dr. Brene Brown, healing, Heart, listening, shame, vulnerability, wisdom, wisdom of the body
Posted by: Joan Brooks | July 31, 2012
What is Your Relationship to Vulnerability?
I recently watched a TED Talk by Dr. Brene′ Brown, who has studied human connection — our ability to empathize, belong, love – for many years. (Link to TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html) She was most interested in the people in her studies who easily experienced connection and intimacy with others. What she discovered is that they have an underlying sense of worthiness based on a strong sense of love and belonging. She found them to be wholehearted and to have the following qualities:
- The courage to be imperfect.
- The compassion to be kind to themselves first then others.
- An authenticity that helped them connect to others.
- The vulnerability to say “I love you” first or to do something with no guarantee of success. Read More…
Posted in Body as resource | Tags: authenticity, body, body as resource, compassion, courage, healing, Heart, listeing, shame, vulnerability
Posted by: Joan Brooks | July 10, 2012
Where is your magnificence?
I recently had the experience in a Rubenfeld Synergy workshop, Embodied Spirit, with Noel Wight and Joe Weldon, of rediscovering my magnificence once again. We were asked what dislodged or buried spirit of being did we want to re-embody. I instantly saw myself as this magnificent, shining being that I know I am, but that has been buried under layers of crap, mine and others. At first my magnificence was a small, glowing light in my solar plexus, partially hidden behind gray smoke. Read More…
Posted in Body as resource | Tags: birthright, bodymind, bones, embodied, magnificence, mind body, Rubenfeld Synergy, Spirit
Posted by: Joan Brooks | July 3, 2012
Common Ground
Posted by: Joan Brooks | June 19, 2012
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