Here’s Why Brené Brown Believes Creative Women are Powerful
In case you missed it, last weekend was Brit + Co’s fourth annual Re:Make conference in San Francisco. One of our keynote speakers was a scholar, the founder of COURAGEWorks and the giver of one of the most inspirational TEDTalks of all time Dr. Brené Brown delivered a brilliant message about courage and vulnerability. Her quotes have been so inspiring, she recently collaborated with Sugarboo to launch The Brave Heart Gallery, which sells artworks of her quotes (also 20 percent of the proceeds go to a really good cause). Her most recent book RisingStrong explores how “falling gives us the power to write a daring new ending” and how processing the pain head on is can be strength. And according to Brené, when it comes being a creative woman, though not everything you do will be a success, daring to do it anyway is deeply important.
Being a creative in this day and age can at times be daunting — uncertainty about job security, the fear of rejection and staying in love with your passion after it becomes your job can be more than enough to turn people away. “When your vocation becomes your occupation, there’s always a little shift, so you have to protect it,” Brené tells us. “You have to keep the love alive so it doesn’t become just another thing you have to do, because then you can’t put the magic in it.”
And for creative women, we face an additional catalog of hurdles. “Creativity is kind of revealing a part of our soul, and we live in a pretty hostile environment,” Brené says, “so I think it’s scary to put yourself out there when there are so many critics and cynics out there today. I think that’s what make creativity scary, and I think that’s what make it powerful.” Rising in the face of adversity is certainly a strong statement. As our FLOTUS put it, “When they go low, we go high.”
And when you put yourself out there — yes, sometimes you’re going to fail. That’s okay. What you have to be careful of is letting your failures define you. “One of the big life stages at mid-life, anywhere from mid-thirties to late-fifties, the big developmental life stage is integration. We bring home all the parts of ourselves that we have orphaned because we don’t they fit in with who we’re supposed to be, we call them all home and we say, ‘This is me. The good, the bad, the tough, the beautiful.’,” Brené tells us. “I think that’s the gift of being my age, I have a very sensitive bulls–t meter so if you haven’t called everything home and made peace with those parts of us that are hard, that’s hard to be around.” And being able to pick up again after your fall — or even forgiving yourself for lingering down there too long — is all part of the process.
What do you think about Brené Brown’s advice? Tweet us @BritandCo!
(Photos courtesy of Brené Brown and Sugarboo)