You are brave~

PHOTO: ERIN PURCELL

“The truth is that meaningful change is a process. It can be uncomfortable and is often risky, especially when we’re talking about embracing our imperfections, cultivating authenticity, and looking the world in the eye and saying, ‘I am enough.’

“However afraid we are of change, the question that we must ultimately answer is this: What the greater risk? Letting go of what people think or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

“Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It’s about cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, no matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.

“It’s going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I am perfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.

“It makes sense to me that the gifts of imperfection are courage, compassion, and connection, because when I think back to my life before this work, I remember often feeling fearful, judgmental, and alone the opposite of these gifts…

“Choosing to live and love with our whole hearts is an act of defiance…One minute you’ll pray that the transformation stops, and the next minute you’ll pray that it never ends.

“You’ll also wonder how you can feel so alive and so afraid at the same time. At least that’s how I feel most of the time…brave, afraid and very, very alive.”

~Brene Brown, Ph. D. from The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are