COM125 essay
Discussion 4: The Self and Vulnerability
(COM125)
To complete this discussion, watch the following video and answer the questions below:
Part I. The speaker indicates some important concepts regarding human connection and relationships. She explains that to be connected to others in genuine relationships, we must ‘allow ourselves to be seen’. Another implication of her research is that vulnerability is not only the home of unpleasant emotions like fear and grief, but it is the launch pad of important positive emotions like joy, hope and love. Reflect on these ideas in the questions below:
*Do you feel that you allow yourself ‘to be seen’ in your interpersonal relationships? Are you authentic and honest about your ups and downs, and if not, what holds you back from sharing these experiences with others? How do you balance healthy disclosure and vulnerability in your communication?
*The speaker expresses her belief that vulnerability is necessary for us to ‘truly be alive’. Do you agree that our culture is well-practiced at numbing and ignoring the impact of our emotions? Why or why not?
*Identify one specific experience with a friend or relative where you feel that you have been challenged to be truly authentic and real. How did you display courage and compassion with yourself and others in that context?
Watch video here & answer questions:
Reference: TED. (2010). Tedtalks: Brene Brown–the power of vulnerability.
Respond 2 peers:
Peer 1: Payton
I try to allow myself “to be seen” in interpersonal relationships. I try to be as much of an open book as possible but sometimes my trauma can get the best of me. When I was a child I was always told to “keep my tears for my pillow” and that “big girls don’t cry”. I was never allowed or felt comfortable to talk about my feelings. After working hard on getting better at communication with my therapist, but it’s also important to balance expressing vulnerability and not over sharing your feelings.
I believe it is normal in our day-to-day culture to numb and ignore our emotion. I believe this is something that is encouraged by society because of the idea that to be perfect you should be happy all the time. I think emotion is very important in feeling alive and just being human. If you suppress your emotion for too long you will essentially burst emotionally. In a study on the social costs of emotional suppression found, “suppression predicted lower social support, less closeness to others, and lower social satisfaction” (Srivastava, 2009).
I am most authentic when I am with my husband because I trust him, and I am most comfortable around him. I am sometimes vulnerable with close friends, but I am always weary about people. When I was younger, about 10 or 12, I was confronted by my grandmother about my home life. She had known what was going on but wanted me to talk to her and not give my usual answer, “it’s fine” or “I’m fine”. So, I had to make the decision whether or not I wanted to be truthful about what was going on. I guess that courage I had that day to be honest made me better with my emotions, but it is still something I deal with every day.
Srivastava, S., Tamir, M., McGonigal, K. M., John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2009). The social costs of emotional suppression: a prospective study of the transition to college. Journal of personality and social psychology, 96(4), 883–897. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014755
TED. (2010). Tedtalks: Brene Brown–the power of vulnerability.
Peer 2: Trevor
1. Yes, I do my best with being authentic and the only thing that holds me back from being honest about ups and downs is I prefer to be humble and sometimes I do not look at my own ups a lot and with downs I get worried about what they may think. I balance healthy disclosure by keeping certain things to myself depending on person, with partner I don’t hide things with vulnerability I try not to attach a lot of personal emotions into the disclosure unless it’s with partner. I prefer to be completely open with one person that I trust with everything and to others it depends on how much I wish to trust them with my own feelings.
2. I believe in the work field yes because it does not matter how the workers feel what matters is the income. I believe our culture is good at acknowledging the emotions we all have though because we have many intuitions meant for mental health such as therapy and that proves that we are cultured to care about emotions.
3. With my Grandma, she can be hard on me sometimes and she gets frustrated and can say mean things without meaning to. When she does this I do not have the desire to be authentic with her anymore because it feels as if I say how I feel about something than I’m incorrect because her choice is better for me. I attempted to display compassion by asking how she felt about everything and then explaining how I felt and at the end after the talk she told me she would try to work on her harsh words and that I should do what I want to do with my life. (good conclusion)
Sincerely,
Tina
D
iscussion 4: The Self and Vulnerability
(COM125)
To complete this discussion, watch the following video and answer the
questions below:
Part
I
. The speaker indicates some important concepts regarding human
connection and relationships. She explains that to be connected to
others in genuine relationships, we must ‘allow ourselves to be seen’.
Another implication of her research is that vulnerabil
ity is not only the
home of unpleasant emotions like fear and grief, but it is the launch pad
of important positive emotions like joy, hope and love. Reflect on these
ideas in the questions below:
*Do you feel that you allow yourself ‘to be seen’ in your i
nterpersonal
relationships? Are you authentic and honest about your ups and downs,
and if not, what holds you back from sharing these experiences with
others? How do you balance healthy disclosure and vulnerability in your
communication?
*The speaker expre
sses her belief that vulnerability is necessary for us
to ‘truly be alive’. Do you agree that our culture is well
–
practiced at
numbing and ignoring the impact of our emotions? Why or why not?
*Identify one specific experience with a friend or relative wher
e you
feel that you have been challenged to be truly authentic and real. How
did you display courage and compassion with yourself and others in
that context?
Watch video here & a
nswe
r questions:
Reference:
TED. (2010)
.
Tedtalks:
Brene
Brown
—
the
power
of
vulnerabilit
y
.
Discussion 4: The Self and Vulnerability
(COM125)
To complete this discussion, watch the following video and answer the
questions below:
Part I. The speaker indicates some important concepts regarding human
connection and relationships. She explains that to be connected to
others in genuine relationships, we must ‘allow ourselves to be seen’.
Another implication of her research is that vulnerability is not only the
home of unpleasant emotions like fear and grief, but it is the launch pad
of important positive emotions like joy, hope and love. Reflect on these
ideas in the questions below:
*Do you feel that you allow yourself ‘to be seen’ in your interpersonal
relationships? Are you authentic and honest about your ups and downs,
and if not, what holds you back from sharing these experiences with
others? How do you balance healthy disclosure and vulnerability in your
communication?
*The speaker expresses her belief that vulnerability is necessary for us
to ‘truly be alive’. Do you agree that our culture is well-practiced at
numbing and ignoring the impact of our emotions? Why or why not?
*Identify one specific experience with a friend or relative where you
feel that you have been challenged to be truly authentic and real. How
did you display courage and compassion with yourself and others in
that context?
Watch video here & answer questions:
Reference: TED. (2010). Tedtalks: Brene Brown–the power of vulnerability.
—-
Discussion 4: Vulnerability and the Self
(COM125)
To finish this debate, watch the video below and answer the questions below:
Part One. The speaker emphasizes some key ideas about human connection and relationships. She explains that in order to be truly connected to people, we must ‘allow ourselves to be seen.’ Another result of her research is that vulnerability is not just the home of negative emotions such as fear and loss, but also the starting point for crucial good emotions such as joy, hope, and love. Consider the following questions as you consider these ideas:
*Do you believe you let yourself ‘be seen’ in your interpersonal relationships? Are you genuine and honest about your ups and downs, and if not, what is preventing you from being so?
