Telling a true story about personal experience is not just a matter of being oneself, or even or finding oneself. It is also a matter of choosing oneself.
Interpretation
Sharing personal experiences involves authenticity and conscious choices about how we present ourselves.
In this quote, Harriet Lerner emphasizes that narrating one's own experiences goes beyond merely being authentic or on a journey of self-discovery. It entails a deliberate decision to embrace and present one's true self, highlighting the importance of choice in the expression of personal identity and stories.
In practice
This quote can inspire a personal development workshop focused on self-expression.
It is not fear that stops you from doing the brave and true thing in your daily life. Rather, the problem is avoidance. You want to feel comfortable so you avoid doing or saying the thing that will evoke fear and other difficult emotions. Avoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run but, it will never make you less afraid.
Those of us who are locked into ineffective expressions of anger suffer as deeply as those of us who dare not get angry at all.
If we only listened with the same passion that we feel about being heard.
An intimate relationship is one in which neither party silences, sacrifices, or betrays the self and each party expresses strength and vulnerability, weakness and competence in a balanced way.
Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change.
Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
The key is the ability, whether innate or conditioned, to find the other side of the rote, the picayune, the meaningless, the repetitive, the pointlessly complex. To be, in a word, unborable... It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish.
We tend to use knowledge as therapy.
A person who cannot imagine the future is a person who cannot contemplate the results of his actions. Some are thus paralyzed into inaction.
Wherever you are is the entry point.
The only power you have on this planet is the power of your decisions.
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