The Power of Vulnerability

'Vulnerability is about courage.'
 
'Uncertainty, exposure and emotional risks ... are part of our daily experience.'

'Our capacity for wholeheartedness can never be greater than our willingness to be broken-hearted.'    

 

Dr Brene Brown

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/vulnerability/4745912

http://www.brenebrown.com/books/

'Affluenza: When too much is never enough' Clive Hamilton & Richard Denniss

HK Shopping Mall, a photo by betta design on Flickr.

'Nineteenth century economists predicted that the abundance made possible by technological advances and the modern organisation of work would result in the emergence of 'post-materialist' humans - people existing on a higher plane, where their cultural, intellectual and spiritual powers are refined.

But instead of witnessing the end of economics we live in a time when economics and its concerns are more dominant than ever before.


People in affluent countries are now even more obsessed with money and material acquisition, and the richer they are the more this seems to be the case.'

http://www.clivehamilton.com/books/affluenza/ 

http://www.affluenza.org/

Graham Greene, 'A Burnt-Out Case' 1960

Trapped Seeds, a photo by the justified sinner on Flickr.


'Evolution, as far as we can tell, has lodged itself in the brains of man. The ant, the fish, even the ape has gone as far as it can go, but in our brain evolution is moving ...
Suppose love were to evolve as rapidly in our brains as technical skill has done ... I have a small hope, that's all, a very small hope, that someone they call Christ was the fertile element, looking for a crack in the wall to plant its seed.'

http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/20/specials/greene-burnout.html

Crying

selbstinszinierung durch fremdbestimmung, a photo by der bobbel on Flickr.

from The Dustbowl of Good and Evil by Tom Richardson

'while fireworks
and fluro wristbands
flash in the dark summer night

Her husband sits in the parking lot
She doesn't see his tears'



Crying For Health (source unknown)
'Crying is one of our first socialising behaviours, similar to smiling and laughing. It lets others know how we feel, without needing to use words. 
Babies cry to attract the attention of their parents. Orphans don't cry as much, and often have difficulties reading mood and expressing themselves emotionally.
As we get older, crying becomes a submissive behaviour. Tear-filled eyes blur vision and make us seem vulnerable, and therefore less of a threat. Crying also expresses our emotional distress and calls our tribe to gather round and support, or forgive.
Crying, similar to laughing, also has an effect on our brain and 'healthiness'. Work pressure, anxiety, depression and relationship problems affect the levels of 'stress' hormones in our body. 
Crying helps to rebalance the stress hormones, even if only for a short time, makes us feel better and expresses profound emotion.'

'Luminous Emptiness' by Francesca Fremantle

'...generosity springs from unshakeable confidence in the possession of goodness. In order to connect with this confidence, we need to let go of our limited self-concept and open up to the limitless power of the buddha qualities, allowing them to enter our own lives - or rather, to rediscover them there - and to radiate out to all beings. By definition, goodness cannot be kept for oneself; virtue. goodness, and richness ... are inseparable from their generosity ... Through wisdom we recognise the inherent potential for enlightenment in all beings, making it impossible to disrespect them simply because they are different. Feeling our essential sameness deeply, however strange others may sometimes seem to us, gives us the power of sympathy and empathy. Emotional reactions of liking and disliking begin to lose their importance, so that impartial, all-embracing love can blossom in their place. Inner equanimity develops from seeing that the same opportunity for awakening exists in all circumstances, whether happy or sad, pleasant or unpleasant, privileged or deprived.'

https://www.lionsroar.com/author/francesca-fremantle/

'Ten Days to Self Esteem' by David D Burns

https://flic.kr/p/8nHbub

'Many perfectionists believe that they must earn love and approval by being outstanding. An alternative philosophy would be that our vulnerabilities and flaws - and not our successes and strengths - ultimately make us lovable and human. People can be admired or resented - but never loved - for their successes and achievements.'

https://feelinggood.com/

Francoise Gilot speaking of Picasso to Janet Hawley (GoodWeekend 23July 2011)

https://flic.kr/p/82VYrU 

'Picasso would wake late, about 10am, shrouded in pessimism. "Pablo would complain life was  unbearable, why should he even get up, there was no purpose to anything," Gilot relates. "I would convince him things were not so bad after all, today he would paint something marvellous. Friends would call in, Pablo would win some argument, recharge his batteries, become king again. Finally around 1pm he'd start work in his studio, in a good mood." '

http://www.francoisegilot.com/frames.html

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandartsdaily/janet-hawley27s-artists-in-conversation/4372926  

'Shame: Theory, therapy, theology' by Stephen Pattison 2000, Cambridge University Press

Orange moon has risen, a photo by slworking2 on Flickr.

'Some of the pure gold of our personality is relegated to the shadow because it can find no place in that great levelling process that is culture.'

'Curiously, people resist the noble aspect of their shadow more strenuously than they hide the dark sides. To draw the skeletons out of the closet is relatively easy, but to own the gold in the shadow is terrifying. It is more disrupting to find that you have a profound nobility of character than to find out you are a bum. Of course you are both; but one does not discover these two elements at the same time. The gold is related to our higher calling, and this can be hard to accept at certain stages of life, and some people may suffer a severe shock or illness before they learn how to let the gold out.'

https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Shame.html?id=CIhEhpLR6qEC&redir_esc=y

Les Murray, 2009, 'Killing the Black Dog', Black Inc

https://flic.kr/p/fZLR5e 

'I derived great benefit from talking with him, as we often do when the pain and its terms are shared and there can be no more nonsense about Getting a Grip on Yourself. We gave each other permission to be ill, a necessary precondition of being cured. I'm convinced that stoicism is never the answer to anything, being nothing more than a cruel, callous encouragement to people to devour each other, a powerful ally of sadists and tyrants keen to get people to endure things which should be firmly refused as unendurabale. Courage, indeed! Desensitisation and bully-training, rather.'
p. 14

https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/killing-black-dog

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/archived/bookshow/les-murray-and-the-black-dog/3083662