I’m learning that recognizing and leaning into the discomfort of vulnerability teaches us how to live with joy, gratitude and grace.

Brené Brown

Joy and Gratitude

Theme: Joy

To love someone fiercely, to believe in something with your whole heart, to celebrate a fleeting moment in time, to fully engage in a life that doesn’t come with guarantees—these are risks that involve vulnerability and often pain. But, I’m learning that recognizing and leaning into the discomfort of vulnerability teaches us how to live with joy, gratitude and grace.

Brené Brown

Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation – Brené Brown Endowed Chair at The Graduate College of Social Work. Additionally, she serves as a visiting professor in management at The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. Brown's academic roles are extensions of her deeper mission to explore the themes of courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. Her research is not just data and theories; it's an invitation to engage with the very elements that make us human.

Brown has spent two decades contributing to our understanding of emotional and social dynamics through her research and writing. She is the author of five books that have risen to the top of the New York Times bestseller list: "The Gifts of Imperfection," "Daring Greatly," "Rising Strong," "Braving the Wilderness," and "Dare to Lead." These works offer pragmatic insights into the nature of human connection. They encourage the reader to embrace their own vulnerabilities, pointing out that it's often in these spaces of uncertainty and risk that we discover our capacity for love and belonging.

Beyond the page, Brown expands her reach through various platforms. Her TED talk, "The Power of Vulnerability," has been viewed more than 50 million times worldwide. She also hosts two podcasts, "Unlocking Us" and "Dare to Lead," providing a space for ongoing discussions about the complexities of the human experience. In 2019, she broke new ground with her Netflix special, "The Call to Courage," becoming the first researcher to present a filmed lecture on the streaming service. Through all these avenues, Brown underscores the need for a heart-centered approach to life, one that makes room for both the challenges and the beauty of our shared human journey.

Humanism, Arts and Sciences
The Gifts of Imperfection

Brene Brown. The Gifts of Imperfection : Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. Center City, Minn., Hazelden, 2010.

Brené Brown

Theme: Joy

About Brené Brown’s Quote on Joy, Gratitude & Grace [Commentary]

Brené Brown’s insight, “I’m learning that recognizing and leaning into the discomfort of vulnerability teaches us how to live with joy, gratitude and grace,” highlights an important truth about the human experience. Brown suggests that vulnerability, often seen as a weakness, is actually a path to deeper fulfillment. Engaging with life’s uncertainties—through loving deeply, investing in beliefs, or embracing fleeting moments—requires an openness that can be uncomfortable. Yet, it is this openness that allows access to a richer life filled with joy and gratitude. Her words challenge the instinct to shield oneself from pain and instead encourage leaning into it to experience enduring joy.

Brown’s work reveals that joy isn’t simply a product of good circumstances but is cultivated through gratitude practices linked to vulnerability. This willingness to face discomfort enhances our perception of life’s beauty. She emphasizes that vulnerability and gratitude are intertwined, moving us from surface-level happiness to a deeper form of joy. In her research, Brown found that those who live joyfully often practice gratitude, showing that joy is not just an outcome but a deliberate practice tied to recognizing life’s unpredictable gifts.

Mentioning grace alongside joy and gratitude reflects an acceptance of life’s imperfections. Embracing vulnerability acknowledges that life has no guarantees, yet within this acknowledgment lies the potential for joy. Facing discomfort transforms moments of struggle with resilience and grace. Brown’s approach shows that vulnerability is not a path to pain, but an essential part of a life filled with joy, connection, and inner strength.

Brené Brown on Happiness, Gratitude, and Joy

“One of the most profound changes in my life happened when I got my head around the relationship between gratitude and joy. I always thought that joyful people were grateful people. I mean, why wouldn’t they be? They have all of that goodness to be grateful for. But after spending countless hours collecting stories about joy and gratitude, three powerful patterns emerged: Without exception, every person I interviewed who described living a joyful life or who described themselves as joyful, actively practiced gratitude and attributed their joyfulness to their gratitude practice. Both joy and gratitude were described as spiritual practices that were bound to a belief in human interconnectedness and a power greater than us. People were quick to point out the differences between happiness and joy as the difference between a human emotion that’s connected to circumstances and a spiritual way of engaging with the world that’s connected to practicing gratitude.”

―Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.

Brené Brown on Living Wholeheartedly [Excerpts]

Wholehearted people share the following qualities: courage, compassion, and connection. Courage isn’t about being brave but telling the story of who you are with your whole heart. The wholehearted have the courage to be imperfect.

“Spirituality emerged as a fundamental guidepost in Wholeheartedness. Not religiosity but the deeply held belief that we are inextricably connected to one another by a force greater than ourselves―a force grounded in love and compassion. For some of us that’s God, for others it’s nature, art, or even human soulfulness. I believe that owning our worthiness is the act of acknowledging that we are sacred. Perhaps embracing vulnerability and overcoming numbing is ultimately about the care and feeding of our spirits.”

―Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead.

Brené Brown on Spirituality [Excerpts]

I recorded an audio program for Sounds True titled, Rising Strong as a Spiritual Practice. Spirituality emerged as an important theme in the data I collected for Rising Strong…

“Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose to our lives.”

This definition was first published in The Gifts of Imperfection. For some people, that power greater than us is God; for others, it’s fishing. Some are reminded of our inextricable connection by faith; others by expressions of shared humanity. Some find that religion is the best expression of inextricable human connection that is guided by love and compassion, and others believe that no entity has done more to corrode that connection than organized religion.

While diverse in practice, the definition of spirituality and the importance of it to the concepts of wholeheartedness and rising strong has withstood the test of new data. In Grounded Theory, a theory is only as good as its ability to work new data. This one has stood the test of time and emerged again as an important variable in the research on true belonging that I write about in Braving the Wilderness.

—Brené Brown [Defining Spirituality—brenebrown.com (March 27, 2018)].

“And so when I started to look at belonging, what I realized is that it is a spiritual practice, and it’s the spiritual practice of believing in ourselves and belonging to ourselves so fully that we find what’s sacred in not only being a part of something, like our DNA calls us to be, but also, we find sacred the need, on occasion, to stand alone in our values, in our beliefs, when we’re called to do that, as well. And so, to me, this idea of true belonging is a type of belonging that never requires us to be inauthentic or change who we are, but a type of belonging that demands who we are—that we be who we are—even when we jeopardize connection with other people, even when we have to say, “I disagree. That’s not funny. I’m not on board.””

—Brené Brown [Strong Back, Soft Front, Wild Heart—On Being with Krista Tippett].

Joy and Gratitude

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