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Is being vulnerable a sign of weakness?

Maybe it's our way of showing that we need help and support!

Dr. Monica Starke
5 min readJul 4, 2020
Monica Starke, Ed.D

On the morning of the 4th of July, I received this excerpt about vulnerability taken from Brene Brown’s “I Thought it Was Just Me (but it isn’t”)- sent by my remarkable brother, HH:

“Second, I think people still struggle with the term vulnerability. We equate vulnerability with weakness, and, in our culture, there are very few things we abhor more than weakness. Regardless of the words we choose, recognizing and understanding our triggers is essentially the same as recognizing and understanding our vulnerabilities, and this is a source of strength. Vulnerability is not weakness. Sometimes we are afraid that acknowledging that something exists is going to make it worse. For example, if I acknowledge that being perceived as a good mother is really important and if I accept the fact that motherhood is a vulnerable issue for me, is the shame around this issue going to grow? No. This is simply not true. When we feel shame about an experience, we often feel some overwhelming combination of confusion, fear and judgment. If it happens in an area where we know we’re vulnerable, we’re much more likely to come out of that confusion, fear and judgment with an instinct about what we’re feeling and what we need to do to find support.”(Brené Brown) —

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Dr. Monica Starke
Dr. Monica Starke

Written by Dr. Monica Starke

Self-care and self-mastery are essential to living your best life and keeping you STRONG. Read my articles. Get my book! https://medium.com/@starkemonica/about

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