Belonging and Courage to stand alone — Resources from Brené Brown

The theme of Belonging has shown up for me over and over in 2022. I’ve asked myself questions such as who am I? What am I? Where do I belong? Who are my true genuine friends? in exploring the landspaces of inner being and authenticity.

Who better to know more about belonging than Brené Brown. In this post, I mention some powerful quotes from her and 2 youtube videos that have made a huge impact on me and how I show up at work and personally. As always, I am sharing what I am called to do.

Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work. Brené is also a visiting professor in management at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.


“The thing is that we are wired to be a part of something bigger than us so deeply, that sometimes we will take fitting as a substitute, but actually fitting in is the greatest barrier to belonging because fitting in says, ‘Be like them to be accepted.’ Belonging says, ‘This is who I am. I hope we can make a connection,”

“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

“As it turns out, men and women who have the deepest sense of true belonging are people who also have the courage to stand alone when called to do that. They are willing to maintain their integrity and risk disconnection in order to stand up for what they believe in.”

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

-The Man in the Arena Quote – Teddy Roosevelt, Brene Brown)


Last but not least, I loved listening to the below youtube audios/videos.


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