The Power Of Vulnerability, By Brene Brown

As human beings evolve from infancy to elderly stages in life, times of struggle and hardship continually challenge their kin and personage; as life tests their mental fortitude and survival dexterity. In essays “My Father’s hands” by author Daisy Hernandez, and “Beginning Dialogues” by author Toi Derricotte, life and its whirl wind of ups and downs are expressed and exemplified. Both authors’ upbringings share various similarities on their evolutionary road trip through life. Struggling with hardship and abuse, how both authors’ dealt with their hardships, and how they ultimately survived/overcame these trying events, show similar correlations.

From the words of C.S. Lewis, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny”. Facing hardships and breaking free from their normal world allows the hero inside of people to come out. Many stories document this journey of a hero through the Hero’s Journey Archetype. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man named Rainsford stumbles upon an island where humans are hunted by a crazed man. The hero’s journey archetype is implemented throughout Rainsford’s experiences in the story. Richard Connell used the Hero’s Journey Archetype to structure the plot and develop the theme that with clever thinking and lots of hope, one can succeed at anything.

Living in an environment with limited resources affects vulnerability in many ways. For example, those who are poor are continually faced with multiple risk factors that cause chronic stress, such as unsafe housing, repeated exposure to violence/crime, barriers to health care access (i.e. lack of insurance, lack of transportation, language barriers), and other limitations. Therefore, it is not unusual for an individual or community that is constantly bombarded by stressful situations to become immobilized. “In other words, they do not have the ability to effectively respond to even the

Life is full of challenges. In the stories, “Breaking Through Uncertainty-Welcoming Adversity” and “Neighbours,” written by Jim McCormick and Lien Chao, the main characters illustrate benefits derived from taking risks. Even though both people in these texts undergo personal challenges, in “Neighbours” the character, Sally, receives greater benefits from taking risks than McCormick in “Breaking Through Uncertainty-Welcoming Adversity”.

Brene Brown, a researcher in social interactions, takes an unexpected perspective in her ted talk called “The Power of Vulnerability”. She starts out her speech by telling a joke and explaining her education and experience in social work. A quote her professor put on the board led her to research the connection among people. However, this led to many other things such as shame, fear, and the most prominent factor, vulnerability. She realized that for connection to occur we must be seen completely for who we are. This led to 6 years of research, including hundreds of stories and thousands of pieces of data. Brown wrote a book about her findings but she felt that something was still missing. It turned out the missing component was worthiness. To delve deeper into worthiness, she did a study on people who think they are worthy and people who don’t. People who thought they were worthy had these four things in common, courage, compassion, connection, and vulnerability. Brown realized at this point that she needed to understand vulnerability thoroughly by facing it herself. A therapist helped brown face vulnerability head on for a year straight, and in the end, she potentially won her life back. Brown stated “…vulnerability is the core of shame, of fear and of worthiness, but it is also the birthplace of joy, of creativity, of belonging, of love…” After facing her fear, she knew that vulnerability was the core of not only fear, but also happiness. Brown goes on to say that we

During the Civil rights movement many leaders faced many adversities, but one leader named Malcolm X wrote,“Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time” hence he tries to say that there is no better way to develop skills than an adversity. At the present time, when people are faced with a challenge they either give up or take the easy way, thus leading to potential going to waste. Although adversity can bring harm, it helps introduce us to ourselves and our unknown skills with the potential to improve them.

Overall, adversity is not always something to be avoided. Once someone is affected by adversity in their life, they must keep going and work through it opposed to allowing it to block them permanently. While enduring a difficult time, people are most vulnerable and receptive, making it imperative to properly handle these misfortunes that shape

Vulnerability is defined as susceptibility or increased risk for health problems (DeChesnay, 2008).  A group of individuals are considered at higher risk for illness when their physical, emotional, psychological, or social health, is compromised (Aday, 2001).  There are many leading causes for why a population is considered at higher risk; socioeconomic, age, gender, demographics, personal, and cultural backgrounds are some of the key factors (Aday, 2001; Sebation, 1996). Individuals can become vulnerable at any time because of change in life circumstances, placing them at higher risk. One group

Hardships have the power to make a break a person, as Roman poet, Horace, once said, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant”. Everyone has or will have to face adversity at some point in their lives, it is a universal truth. Although misfortunes usually have a negative connotation, depending on the struggle and how one deals with it, it is likely the person will come out of misfortune better prepared for the world. Contrastly, if a person never experienced any hardships, they would lack a sophisticated understanding of the world and lack the ability to handle difficult situations. Adversity gives people strength they can not obtain with success.

Human development is an ongoing process of not just, Hawkins concentric circle known as, the body, but the soul. His Temporal Systems circle that includes family, friends, church, society, government, economy, and education are what help shape and develop these areas of one’s life. During this process of human development painful things happen and if not dealt with can cause damaging results later. The title of Wilson’s book, Hurt People Hurt People, is a perfect description of what can happen. Wilson, knowing change is not easy, said it best when she said, “We must enter the change process with open eyes. When we do, we’ll see that the necessary truth requires tears, time and even some terror” (p. 96).

‘’Vulnerability is the quality of being easily hurt or attacked.’’ (Vocab.com) Vulnerable groups in society are the disabled, migrant children or adults, individuals with illnesses, individuals who are abused, and anyone who is subjected to racism.

Inequality, it is all around us, in our jobs, at our children schools, in our neighborhoods, and no matter how hard we might try to escape it, there if no escape. We used to think that inequality was a thing of the past, but it is still very prevalent in today’s society. Many think “well inequality does not affect me personally, so why should I care?” While it may not affect you personally, it probably affects someone close to you. Throughout his book Toxic Inequality, Thomas Shapiro demonstrates just how surrounded the population is by inequalities with stories about families who are not only financially divided, but racially. These inequalities are rooted so deeply in our society that it can be easy to overlook the problem and ignore it, but as Shapiro demonstrates we can no longer overlook the problem, we need to face it head on it we have any hope of trying to fix it for future generations.

Vulnerability is often one-dimensionally viewed as the degree to which mishaps, pain and shame are allowed to enter into one’s life. However it is also the birthplace of creativity and basis for a feeling of self-worthiness. Thereby vulnerability creates authenticity. There are various different definitions of vulnerability according to the field in which the term is used. The most commonly found dictionary definition states that “Vulnerability refers to the susceptibility of a person, group, society or system to physical or emotional injury or attack. The term can also refer to a person who let

Social Vulnerability refers to risk as its primary element (Scanlon & Lee, 2007). Every individual is exposed to risk factors therefore; everyone is potentially vulnerable to health problems (Scanlon & Lee, 2007). Social vulnerability consists of various economic, democratic, and cultural variables in relation to an individual’s likelihood of becoming ill (Scanlon & Lee, 2007). The degree of social vulnerability is that an individual experience is greatly reliant on their personal capacity to tolerate adverse influences (Scanlon & Lee, 2007). Each individual will have different strategies and abilities in coping, resisting, and recovering from situations that could result in social vulnerability (Scanlon & Lee, 2007).

As a family gathers around a Thanksgiving table to discuss all the usual topics ("money, religion, class and what the kids are doing wrong with their lives"), the many fears humans face on a daily basis are revealed in the five members of the Blake family (Isherwood 1). Overall, this family paints a depressing picture of humanity. How do people move through life at all? In Stephen Karam's "The Humans," the Blake family illustrates both the positive and negative ways people cope with the basic fears they face on a day-to-day basis in the twenty-first century.