I am Enough from Brené Brown

25 May I am Enough from Brené Brown

A note from Tracey: Ever since the very first post here at the Collaborative, I’ve been asked a lot of questions; a number of which I don’t feel qualified to answer. But I am happy to be introducing someone to you who is very qualified and is a well-spring of knowledge on worthiness and enoughness. She is not only an incredible human being, she’s a dear friend. A special thank you to Brené Brown fo sharing her insights with us.

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If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the past decade, it’s that love and belonging are essential to the human experience. In The Gifts of Imperfection, I write,

“A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all women, men, and children. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick. There are certainly other causes of illness, numbing, and hurt, but the absence of love and belonging will always lead to suffering.”

As I conducted my research, I realized that only one thing separated the men and women who felt a deep sense of love and belonging from the people who seem to be struggling for it. That one thing is the belief in their worthiness.

It’s as simple and complicated as this: If we want to fully experience love and belonging, we must believe that we are worthy of love and belonging.

When we can let go of what other people think and own our story, we gain access to our worthiness—the feeling that we are enough just as we are and that we are worthy of love and belonging. When we spend a lifetime trying to distance ourselves from the parts of our lives that don’t fit with who we think we’re supposed to be, we stand outside of our story and hustle for our worthiness by constantly performing, perfecting, pleasing, and proving.

Our sense of worthiness—that critically important piece that gives us access to love and belonging—lives inside of our story. For me it all comes down to this:

My story matters because I matter.  I am absolutely enough.

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About Brené Brown

Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW is a researcher, writer, and professor. To read more about Brené and her work, visit her website or check out her Ordinary Courage blog. Bio photo courtesy of Andrea Scher.

Extra Special Treat:

To celebrate our I AM ENOUGHNESS, we’re giving away two copies of Brené’s DVD: The Hustle for Worthiness: Exploring the Power of Love, Belonging, and Being Enough.

Leave your name in the comments section along with this one simple statement “I am enough!” this week to be entered in the random drawing for the goods!

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Thank you all so much for your comments. The winner of the DVD is SLY (or sheena). Congrats!! And the 2nd DVD goes to Maegan! Yay you!