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  • The Power of Vulnerability

  • Teachings of Authenticity, Connection, and Courage
  • By: Brené Brown
  • Narrated by: Brené Brown
  • Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (4,660 ratings)

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The Power of Vulnerability

By: Brené Brown
Narrated by: Brené Brown
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Publisher's Summary

Show Up and Let Yourself be Seen

Is vulnerability the same as weakness? “In our culture,” teaches Dr. Brené Brown, “we associate vulnerability with emotions we want to avoid such as fear, shame, and uncertainty. Yet we too often lose sight of the fact that vulnerability is also the birthplace of joy, belonging, creativity, authenticity, and love.” On The Power of Vulnerability, Dr. Brown offers an invitation and a promise - that when we dare to drop the armor that protects us from feeling vulnerable, we open ourselves to the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives. Here she dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and reveals that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.

The Power of Vulnerability is a very personal project for me,” Brené explains. “This is the first place that all of my work comes together. This audio course draws from all three of my books - it’s the culmination of everything I’ve learned over the past twelve years. I'm very excited to weave it all into a truly comprehensive form that shows what these findings and insights can mean in our lives.”

Guidance and Insights for Wholehearted Living

Over the past twelve years, Dr. Brené Brown has interviewed hundreds of people as part of an ongoing study of vulnerability. “The research shows that we try to ward disappointment with a shield of cynicism, disarm shame by numbing ourselves against joy, and circumvent grief by shutting off our willingness to love,” explains Dr. Brown. When we become aware of these patterns, she teaches, we begin to become conscious of how much we sacrifice in the name of self-defense -and how much richer our lives become when we open ourselves to vulnerability.

“In my research,” Dr. Brown says, “the word I use to describe people who can live from a place of vulnerability is wholehearted.” Being wholehearted is a practice—one that we can choose to cultivate through empathy, gratitude, and awareness of our vulnerability armor. Join this engaging and heartfelt teacher on The Power of Vulnerability as she offers profound insights on leaning into the full spectrum of emotions—so we can show up, let ourselves be seen, and truly be all in.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Cultivating shame resilience—the key to developing a sense of worth and belonging.
  • Vulnerability as the origin point for innovation, adaptability, accountability, and visionary leadership.
  • Our emotional armory - how we use perfectionism, numbing, and other tactics to avoid feeling vulnerable.
  • The myths of vulnerability - common misconceptions about weakness, trust, and self-sufficiency.
  • Discovering your vulnerability armor - recognizing what makes us shut down, and how we can change.
  • The 10 guideposts of wholehearted living - essential skills for becoming fully engaged in life.
  • Six hours of stories, warm humor, and transformative insights for living a life of courage, authenticity, and compassion from Dr. Brené Brown.
©2012 Brené Brown (P)2012 Brené Brown

What listeners say about The Power of Vulnerability

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You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, It'll Change Your Life!!

TRUE!! I laughed, cried (and I’m a bloke), and gained so much insight about myself. I am now flowing in my creativity, pressing into joy, cultivating gratitude and allowing myself to be positively vulnerable (well, working on it). It has changed my life.

This audio will change the way you see yourself and how you deal with shameful, embarrassing or difficult situations.

It is as if Brené Brown is inside your heart and head and knows more about you than you do. If you chose to practice the guideposts presented in this book you will become more level headed and be an asset, whatever arena you are in. You will be a better friend to yourself and others.

Live a whole hearted life, say yes to vulnerability :)

NB: At the time of writing this review I have listened to the audio through at least 6 times. More if you count the times I have flicked back a chapter or two to re-listen. I also have more bookmarks in it than any other book.

You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, It'll Change Your Life!!

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48 people found this helpful

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Worth listening to over and over.

I loved this audio book and have listened to it probably 300 times since I purchased it. Brene's voice makes it so much mor enjoyable than when others read her work; I have nevet gotten thru one read by someone else.
Do yourself a favor!

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22 people found this helpful

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Be Aware....

This book does have some good insights and advice, but be aware -
she talks a LOT about her devoted and supportive husband; her fantastic and supportive friends, and the incredible relationship she has with her adolescent daughter.
A little bit of that is fine, but by the end of it you might be starting to wonder if telling everyone about her amazing life is possibly her main reward, ever so slightly more important than talking about the advertised subject.
Just saying...if that's not something you need to hear a lot about, you might want to give this one a miss.

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13 people found this helpful

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Live recording, entertaining, but misses the mark

This book is a series of recordings to a live audience. This meant some of the material did not work well as an audio book, such as gestures Brene uses that the audience can see but is not described. Brene is an entertaining speaker but this recording seems around 90% personal anecdotes from Brene's personal life and 10% discussion of her research. Brene uses continuous humour to engage with the audience and at times I felt I was listening to a stand up comic routine loosely based around personal anecdotes. If this is what you are looking for, this recording may be great for you, but I was expecting a more conventional delivery of the topic, and the continuous Brene life anecdotes made it difficult to relate to the material. I would love to see Brene write a conventional book on the topic with a less comedic/personal anecdote delivery and focused on her research instead.

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11 people found this helpful

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ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS!!!

A must read for everyone! Enjoy & make sure you get up and dance, sing and laugh at the end 😉💜

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7 people found this helpful

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A fun take on vulnerability with some blind spots

Enjoyed this book and the reading. Brown has worked on the craft of presenting so the delivery, to a live workshop, is very engaging with lots of great stories. She weaves in the stats and the various points she wants to raise beautifully.

The key blind spot is the impact of her personality style on her conclusions. From the stories my guess is that she has a fear based personality structure that is constantly on the lookout for danger, while striving for safety and security. For instance, at one point she says that if you don't embrace vulnerability joy will be foreboding. That is, you'll be expecting bad things to happen so you won't allow yourself to feel joy. That's true for some with a particular personality structure, but it's equally not true for others.

So I think this is an excellent book for making a case for vulnerability, but perhaps does a disservice to itself by trying to explain everything through the experiences of a particular personality structure and squeezing everything into the lens of vulnerability.

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This could have been half the length.

I felt that she focused on being funny, trying to get a laugh, instead of providing more insights on her research. She lost me at the frequency of the term gremlins.

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not a fan

it sounds like a ceminar it's very hard to pay attention to. is this her ted talk? or are these the actual words from her book?

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5 people found this helpful

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Exceptional

The narrator was excellent. I loved the conversational style. Very much relevant to EVERYONE today.

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3 people found this helpful

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This is not a book.

This is a talk given by author, albite a long one, it is not a book. Do not expect logical flow that you would get from a book.
I also prefer this sort of work explaining how they reach conclusions.

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