Weekend self-care open thread: Brené Brown

When I was promoted to second-in-charge at my current library branch, my regional administrators sent me to a training. I don't remember what the training was about, I don't remember much about it. But, I do remember the facilitators sharing this video by Brené Brown:

I'd never heard of Prof. Brown before that day. And this video just floored me. In a few minutes, she crystalized my thinking about empathy and altruism.

Prof. Brown is a vigorous academic. But what she really is is a storyteller. She tells stories which help us find our better selves. I'm usually suspicious of self-help gurus. But she is one of the exceptions; her version of self-help is to realize you have to help others. She's no Tony Robbins, and that's a very good thing.

For this weekend's self-care, a few videos of her speaking, where she encourages her listeners to step outside of themselves.

I close with a quote from Dr. Brown:

“In order for slavery to work, in order for us to buy, sell, beat, and trade people like animals, Americans had to completely dehumanize slaves. And whether we directly participated in that or were simply a member of a culture that at one time normalized that behavior, it shaped us. We can’t undo that level of dehumanizing in one or two generations. I believe Black Lives Matter is a movement to rehumanize black citizens. All lives matter, but not all lives need to be pulled back into moral inclusion. Not all people were subjected to the psychological process of demonizing and being made less than human so we could justify the inhumane practice of slavery.”

Happy weekend. Be kind and courageous, to yourselves and those around you.