Vulnerability is the core
Adam Ezekiel – Director of Students
Vulnerability
This week at Assembly my address to High School students was about the power of vulnerability.
Brene Brown, well known author, speaker and professor defines vulnerability as “uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.” She states that “Vulnerability is the core, the heart, the center, of meaningful human experiences.”
Rather than teaching students about the benefits of being vulnerable, I was vulnerable with them by sharing some personal challenges that I have experienced:
Parenting and social media
I am a parent of three children, who are 1, 3 and 5 years old. Yes, life is busy! Rather than sharing the trials and tribulations of parenting with the students, I shared my relationship with social media through my parenting journey.
I shared how I found the highlights reel of Instagram constantly showing me the ‘perfect child’ and the ‘perfect family’ challenging, as this was not my day-to-day experience with my own children.
The strategies that I have used to manage this are muting people on Instagram who do not make me feel good about my parenting experience and tailoring my social media account to have more of a positive impact.
Owning your strengths
Secondly, when I was younger I played cricket at quite a high level, with some amazing players. When people told me how incredible it was, I could not appreciate it, because I compared myself to the people around me, who were often better. Only looking back on it now can I appreciate the amazing experiences I was exposed to.
The lesson I learnt from this is to accept my own strengths and not to be so hard on myself. Sometimes being vulnerable is also having the ability to own your strengths.
How do you respond to someone being vulnerable?
When someone is vulnerable with you it can be challenging to respond to them and you may feel like you want to solve their problems… this is not needed. I gave students some simple responses they can use, for example:
- “Thank you for your sharing, that sounds really difficult for you.”
- “Thank you, please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.”
SHOW UP!
Finally, I spoke about Ned Brokman. Ned ran from WA to Bondi Beach, over 4,000km in 46 days and raised $1.85 million for charity.
Ned has a simple lesson that is a great lesson in vulnerability for everyone… “SHOW UP!”
- When you are having difficulties in a relationship – SHOW UP!
- When you are struggling with a POU – SHOW UP!
- When you are nervous about making a speech at assembly – SHOW UP!
I encouraged students to try to embed vulnerability into their life everyday. Own their failures… but more importantly own their strengths as well!
If you are interested in vulnerability and would like to learn more, I strongly encourage Brene Brown’s resources on The Power of Vulnerability.