Vulnerability and Questions

Hi folks!  I hope you all had a fabulous week.

Overall, mine was pretty good.  I had a few low moments – a few things that are bothering me kind of snuck up on me here and there, but I also had a lot of fun.

First, TEDxKC was Thursday night.  I met some friends beforehand at the Nelson Art Gallery (where TEDx was held) and since we were there early, we walked around checking things out for a bit before TEDx started.  We first hit the room with the real mummy and then looked at some of the ancient artifacts, after which we ran upstairs to check out some of the Asian exhibits.  These last ones included my favorite room of the museum that is so incredibly peaceful I could sit in it for hours.

We then went down and enjoyed the TEDx presentation.  Which. Was. Fabulous.  There was one speaker (I won’t name names) that about put me to sleep, and one that was so-so, but the rest were just absolutely amazing. Afterward, we hung out at the reception for a little bit (free drinks!).  I then tracked down Brené Brown in the auditorium (which I wrote about in my last post (see it for a picture) – and see more about her presentation below).  She was amazingly kind.  After all of that, some of us headed to a local restaurant for happy hour.  Overall, a fun night.

On Saturday, I went to a friend’s Passion Party which turned out to be amazingly fun, as well.  Lots and lots of laughing.  At one point, I found myself thinking:  “Is there anything more beautiful than a group of people spontaneously and uproariously laughing all at once?”

Today, the highlight was seeing “Charlie St. Cloud” finally.  I was really sleep deprived, so I actually felt like I was going to fall asleep through parts of it, but overall, it was pretty good.  I think the character’s little brother was much more likable in the book than in the film, but there were three scenes especially that really brought tears to my eyes and two of them were just phenomenal scenes.  The one that affected me the most (for obvious reasons) takes place in the ambulance after the accident when he realizes that his brother is dead.  OMG heartbreaking for me.

So now, back to TEDxKC and Brené Brown.

And all I can say is WOW.  Just WOW.  In person, she is everything that she appears to be through her book, DVD, and blog.  Her presentation really spoke to me, as does most of her work, and gave me a lot to think about.  Plus, she was hilarious!  The whole audience was laughing uproariously at her anecdotes.

Here she is on stage, though the picture didn’t come out very well:

She talked about how we worry so much that we aren’t living an extraordinary enough life that we lose sight of how extraordinary the ordinary in our lives can be.  She talked about vulnerability and how quickly we’re losing  tolerance with others’ vulnerability and losing touch with our own ability to be vulnerable, and what that means to our ability to make genuine connections with others.  It was amazing.

I myself know that over the years, I’ve lost my ability to be easily vulnerable with others.  I still have absolutely no problem with sitting with other people in their own vulnerability, but when it comes to sharing my own story, I have an increasingly difficult time talking about things that are bothering me.  I’ve tried to open up more and more on here lately about all that is going on with me, but it is extremely difficult.  And I know that people have reached out to me in my “real” life lately when they know that something is upsetting me, but I find that I have an extremely hard time opening myself up to them.  There’s a part of me that desperately wants to share – to have someone listen and care, but I think there’s a part of me that deep down inside fears that they really don’t.  Or that the things I’m worried about are just stupid.

So in honor of Brené’s presentation, I have a couple of questions for you.

1. Do you find it easy to allow yourself to be vulnerable with others?
2. Do you find it easy to be with others in their own vulnerability?

I’ve also really been struggling lately with my blog.  I do love it.  It’s been a part of me for 2 and a half years now, but I’m starting to wonder where it’s going or if anyone, including myself, is still getting anything from it.  I know I go in spurts with my blogging.  It’s also hard to figure out what to write about when you’ve been doing it for years.  So here is another question for you.

1. Do you have any questions for me?  I’ll try and answer them as honestly as I can.  This is an open-ended question.  No closing date, no rules.  Feel free to leave them here or send me a message.
2. Anything in particular you’d like to see me blog about?

I appreciate your help!