I’ve worked with a handful of memoirists over the past several years, and I’m always blown away by their ability to write candidly and honestly about their lives…even (or especially) about moments that may have been less than impressive.
And while I’ve yet to tackle anything close to a memoir, watching a guest post I wrote for Andrea Owen’s blog go live last week gave me a taste of what a memoirist might experience. I came out of the closet (so to speak) about a very personal, and often painful, part of my life for all the world to see. And let me tell you…it was scary.
Scary because…
1. What I wrote about was incredibly personal, and honest, and left me feeling incredibly vulnerable
2. Sharing my innermost feelings about my own challenges and shortcomings may result in others judging me (ugh…who likes to feel judged?)
3. I don’t want people to put me in a box about who I am based on what I wrote
But at the same time, putting my post out there was also freeing. Freeing because…
1. What I shared is my truth — nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about — it is what it is
2. My post was the equivalent of a shortcut on the lifelong path I’m on, which is called, “Learning to stop caring about what others think of me”
3. As author and researcher Brene Brown says, being vulnerable is the key to happiness (paraphrasing here…)
I’ve written about Brene Brown’s thoughts on vulnerability before, as she is one of my biggest inspirations for stripping it all down and walking through life in a very transparent, vulnerable way. This quote in particular spoke to me today:
“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”
I don’t know about you, but tapping into the infinite power of our light sounds good to me. And much better than the alternative.
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To read my guest post — “Parenting Outside the Lines” on Andrea’s blog, click here.