What Are You Hiding?

Our brains want us to believe that what we see of other people’s lives on social media is their reality. They have it so much better than us. They didn’t step on cat barf this morning. They aren’t standing in front of the mirror berating the dimples on their thighs. They never fight with their spouse. They don’t have a parent that is who is ill or heading down the road of dementia. Their lives are perfect. And that just makes us feel even more lousy about our own situation.

Intellectually we know it’s not real, but feeling less than often trumps intellect.

So, I’m curious what if we all just got real?

When I watched Brene Brown’s TED talk on “The Power of Vulnerability” I felt like she was speaking directly to me (you can go here to watch it). It was the first time I’d heard anyone talk openly about operating from a place of shame. Hearing that someone else experienced the same thing made me feel like less of a weirdo and helped me move toward healing. That’s Brene’s point, shame loves to hide. The antidote is to get vulnerable. So, let’s do that.

What is it that you don’t want anyone else to know?

For me there is a lot of fear. Fear that my business won’t be successful and I’ll have to give up on my dream. I’m afraid that I’ve passed on dysfunctional sh*t from my family of origin to my kids and have or will mess them up. And while I’ve made tremendous progress on this front, there are plenty of times when I still struggle with not feeling good enough.

I share these in case you feel something similar, you will know you are not alone. Frankly, whatever you are struggling with you are not the only one. We just don’t talk about these things. Shame loves to hide. 

Think about what you don’t want anyone else to know about you. And then feel free to share it with me by email at info(at)jennifersherwood(dot)com Bringing it to the light is the first step to healing.