Brené Brown: The Call to Courage

I had never heard of Brene Brown before I stumbled across her netflix special, The Call to Courage. Within the first few minutes she had me hooked, her personal stories moved me to tears and laughter while making me see things in life from another perspective. It is definitely worth the watch and now I am off to seek out more of Brene Brown!

It's helpful if you watch Dr. Brown's life changing Ted talks on YouTube prior to diving in to her wonderful Netflix special, but not necessary.

This special seems like the natural growth progression for Dr. Brown, a self proclaimed introvert, and plays out like a much needed conversation between friends.

It varies between candid and quite funny personal stories, continued observations on courage and vulnerability, and overcoming the challenges of overnight fame as a researcher and intellectual.

Dr. Brown is a soothing voice of calm and reason in a time where people's fear of being hurt outweighs their desire to feel joy and happiness.

There is so much to be gained from the words of Brene Brown and time with a trusted friend is never time wasted.

Having followed Brené Brown's work for many years, this Netflix special is what I keep coming back to. It is so personal and universal at the same time. In this talk, Brené uses stories from her personal life as a partner, a mother, a woman and a speaker to bring to life her crucial work on vulnerability and courage. Her stories are so relatable, and it's impossible not to be moved by the vulnerability she actually portrais on stage, as she shares her incredible knowledge about human relationships - both the ones we have with ourselves and with each other.

Brené Brown has an outstanding way of engaging with the audience - throughout the entire special I kept forgetting that this was actually a PhD Professor sharing incredibly well-researched findings from year-long academic study. She will have you laughing from the get-go, smiling, laughing again, feeling compassionate, moved, maybe shed a tear. She is completely no-drama and delivers her wisdom with such integrity.

I highly recommend you to watch this. It truly little over an hour well spent. Just from watching it, there's a good chance you'll come out a little more daring!

Oh wow what a grift if I ever heard one. She's noting "pertinent" personal life stories to illustrate how she's come *so far* to be courageous and vulnerable, but ends up just sounding like a tone-deaf narcissist who wants to talk about herself and employs subtle ways of positioning in a category of expertise where she has very little? She's way better off spouting her cold academic "research" rather than trying to speak from experience. This whole thing just comes off like a remedial piece designed to introduce narcissists to the concept of empathy and vulnerability- and the irony there is, it can't be taught which renders this whole thing a scam. Absolute waste of time.

I'm so glad that Netflix made this special! Brene is fun, motivational and real- all while giving you a kick in the pants about being courageous with your life. I would suggest it for ages 15 and up because she does touch on some deep topics and traumas. But it's a great watch for any adult, any parent, and a great one to watch with your older teens. One that I will definitely be re-watching. You can check out our full family review with 8 lessons we took from the talk and 8 discussion questions for afterward on our blog- down the hobbit hole blog dot com.

Don't let the bit of cussing and few negative, bitter, reviews keep you from engaging with this one!! Let it inspire and encourage you!