5. Decide with integrity . When in doubt, just ask yourself what’s the right thing to do. Your gut will always know .

6. Sop judging . This is hard, but you can practice it. We usually judge others ba...

1. Once you stop working so hard on fitting in, you’ll find it’s easier to allow yourself to be you.
2. The courage you need to be who you are comes from learning to trust yourself and others.
3. Don’t swallow your anger, but turn it into a positive before it becomes resentment.

"The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you."

-Brene Brown

In Braving The Wilderness , bestselling author Brené Brown is looking to clear up some of that confusion. What’s more, by sharing her own story of how she cha...

Brené ‘s books aren’t the most straightforward. They rarely give you a few steps and one, two, three, you’re done. They’re about processes of changes. They tell you stories that inspire. They’re honest, raw, and you have to pick out what works for yo...

Steve encouraged her to learn to be herself. Brené started by writing herself permission slips , like “you’re allowed to be goofy, have fun, and enjoy life,” which was her first one. The more of those she wrote, the less reliant she became...

1. Be reliable . When you make a promise , value it. Honor it. Those you make to others, but especially those you make to yourself.
2. Own your mistakes

But to do that, we need not just the right groups of people, but also the courage to stand alone and be ourselves when no one wants to have our back.

All of us experience rejection in one way or another early in our lives. For Brené , it was not getting picked for the cheerleading team and her parents’ subsequent disappointment. For me, it was being sneered at for being smart and wearing glasses. ...

Eventually, you’ll hate yourself not for not fitting in, but for trying so hard to do and failing. That’s a good sign it’s time to stop. For Brené, this sign came in the form of Steve, who she would later marry. When she met him in the 80s, she was on a full-on drinking, partying...

Throwing the expectations of others to the winds is liberating, but it takes courage. This courage to face the world on your own will partly come from building trust . Trust in other people, trust from other people, and, mos...

You can do all of these in small ways, but if you repeat them thousands of times over months and years, eventually, a web of trust will form around you. And it’ll build confidence unlike any you’ve ever felt before.

In November 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks led to the deaths of 130 people in Paris, France. One of the many victims was Hélène Leiris, whose husband Antoine and baby son Melvil were at home. If there’s a sin...

The 15 year old high school student who’s just learning to play our many social games, the 46 year old mother who’s scared to try something new, and anyone who knows their own anger is hurting them.

Braving The Wilderness offers a four-step process to find true belonging through authenticity, bravery, trust, and vulnerability since it’s mostly about learning to stand alone rather than trying to fit...

1. Be reliable . When you make a promise , value it. Honor it. Those you make to others, but especially those you make to yourself.
2. Own your mistakes

Antoine’s outpour of love following such deeds of pure hatred went viral and received support from all over the world. Eventually, he expanded the letter into a book and, today, he’s pushing for more political awareness of terrorism at the European level.

When you feel anger, ackno...

On Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs , belonging is the first thing we desire right after ensuring our own physical survival. And while it’s a very common word, it’s actually hard to describe, i...