The first day of the new year has a powerful quality – the promise of a fresh start. We contemplate how to improve upon the year that has passed and set goals for the year to come. Due to my profession, I am particularly interested in goals that involve making dietary changes. When it comes to changing eating habits, I have found that the difficult part does not come with learning how or what to eat. (I often hear patients tell me, “I know how I should eat, I just can’t seem to do it!”) It is far more difficult to translate our knowledge into action. To dedicate time each day to listen to the body’s hunger and fullness cues and choose the foods that the body needs and desires.
I have found a TED talk by Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW titled “The Power of Vulnerability” to be helpful in navigating the fear that arises when trying to make personal changes. Brené is a research professor at the University of Houston and has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Through years of research, she determined that those who make the most positive personal changes and live “whole-heartedly” are those who embrace vulnerability. She believes that vulnerability is the birthplace of joy, creativity, belonging, and love. In order to make dietary changes to improve our health, or to make any meaningful changes for that matter, we must be open to feeling vulnerable along the way.
In her witty, insightful TED talk, Brené speaks about the power of vulnerability saying:
“This is what I have found: to let ourselves be seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen; to love with our whole hearts, even though there’s no guarantee … to practice gratitude and joy in those moments of terror when we’re wondering, ‘Can I love you this much? Can I believe in this this passionately? Can I be this fierce about this?’ – just to be able to stop and instead of catastrophizing what might happen, to say, ‘I’m just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I’m alive.”
Watch Brené Brown’s TED talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o
If her message resonates with you, I encourage you to look into her books: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, The Gifts of Imperfection and I Thought It Was Just Me.
Regardless of your goal for 2015, remember that courage and vulnerability are required to make a change!