*”Rising Strong” by Brene Brown –Rising-Strong
*Vulnerability is the willingness to show up and be seen
*Whole hearted living
*We teach what we need to learn
*That which we resist…persists
*How often have you said–“Why does this keep happening to me?” or “Why do I keep ending up in the same situation?”
You start to see the same consistent pattern
*If you are vulnerable and put yourself out there you are going to have heartbreak, failure, hurt and disappointment
*We have to learn how to feel our way through and learn how to feel our feelings
*Own your story
*It will be hard…especially when it is fresh.. it is much easier to show a scar that has healed than an open wound…
It is hard to talk about when you are in the middle of the mess…it is hard and emotional…we don’t know what the other
side looks like and we don’t even know if we’ll get to the other side
*Whole Hearted Living= engaging in our life from a place of worthiness
*The longest journey you will take is from your head to your heart
*Do you believe– YOU ARE WORTHY?—YOU ARE ENOUGH?…(what if I speak truth and no one agrees? what if I’m true to myself
but someone walks out on me? what if I never get approval from my Dad?…etc..)….Am I worthy? Am I enough?
*Trying to win someone over for their affirmation is always a mistake….you start hustling for their approval
*Song from “The Greatest Showman says “You know you can’t go back again to the world that you were living in ’cause you’re
dreaming with your eyes wide open” youtube
*Live bravely…Realize the power of emotion… Regain our footing in the midst of the struggle
*1) The Reckoning: walking into our story
2) The Rumble: owning our story
3) The Revolution: a drastic change, shifting
*There is an invisible fence….on one side there is certainty and control…on the other side freedom
*Vikki Fraker revival 356...Vikki emulates the song “This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman”
*We are all just walking each other home
*You have to change the way you see your self
*She thought she was the sum of what she 1)did  2) had  & 3)what other people thought of her…
-so-she spent time and energy accumulating things and worrying about what others thought…and the bar kept getting raised
*In every Brene Brown book she includes Theodore Roosevelt’s quote:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”
*Arena=anywhere you put yourself out there, show up and speak your truth
*It takes courage to get in the arena
*Courage transforms the emotional structure
*Once we have experienced courage we know when we are hiding and when we are showing up
*Spot It- You got it!  (we see in others what we have in ourselves)
*The degree to which you suffer is the degree to which you have compassion
*Speak your truth in love
*It is about rising from our falls and mistakes and face hurt
*Shonda Rhimes (creator and producer of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal) when asked about the role of struggle said
-I don’t even know a character until I’ve seen how they handle adversity (on and off screen)
*You get sick and tired of being sick and tired…knowing you are destined for something else…knowing God created you for so much more
*Disney Pixar explains that every story has 3 parts…
1)Main character is called to an adventure (like The Reckoning)
2)Main character looks for every comfortable way to solve problem (Rumbling)
3)Main character shows that they will go to any length to solve the problem (Resolution)
*Feel you feelings
*The only way out is through
*Be compassionate with yourself….sometimes it isn’t about the lesson you are learning—but, about how kind and compassionate you can be to yourself
*If you don’t have an orange–you can’t give an orange
*If you don’t have compassion for yourself–you can’t give true compassion to others (it would be a watered down version)
*It is a daily practice…a continual journey…the world wants us to think it can be a 1-2-3 check list and you are finished
*The things that take us down can be our greatest gifts
*Sometimes we deny our emotions…we stuff them down and they own us
*What does deny our story mean? Deny truth of who I am, not showing all parts of myself…cutting off pieces of myself
*Choosing to be curious is choosing to be vulnerable…but, over time we realize that it can hurt–so, we start to choose certainty over vulnerability and we choose our armor over vulnerability
*We weren’t meant to carry that load
*When we offload hurt and emotions we can go inward and outward…
*Sometimes a reluctant YES turns into a resentful YES
*If you do not speak your truth to someone you can end up resenting that person
*Say what you mean- mean what you say
*All criticism isn’t created equal…for criticism to be useful you have to have skin in the game
*When we play small (make ourselves smaller) we are harder to hit- but, we are less likely to make a contribution
*talking about making yourself smaller sounds like your spirit is shrinking up
*We are all created for the deep end–not shallow
*Not caring about what anyone thinks isn’t winnable because you loose ability for connection
*There are some people in your life that don’t love you in spite of your imperfections but because of them…
they speak truth to you…when you fall they will help pick you up and dust you off
(On a little 1in x 1in piece of paper they asked us to write down the people in our lives that do this…love us this way…and speak truth into our lives….then said–if anyone says something painful to you- you pull out your little square paper and if their name is not written on your paper–it doesn’t matter!)
*Until I can forgive myself (a deep forgiveness) I only give others a watered down version of myself
*We all have some type of stress or anxiety…we have a patterned way of how we deal with it..
-over function (I won’t feel–I will Do)
-under function (I will feel and I will fall apart.. I won’t help)
*If we don’t feel pain we offload pain
*We deal with regrets- we wish we had no regrets…but, if we wish to have no regrets we totally miss the value of regrets
*When asked “What does that mean?” Vikki started off by answering, “I don’t know what it means to you…but, I can tell you what it means to me”
*We are always changing and growing
*Running from your past is a sure way of letting it define and follow you
*Shine light on the dark parts
*I am slowly learning how to straddle the tension that comes with understanding that I am tough AND tender, brave AND afraid, strong AND struggling- ALL of these things, All of the time.  I’m working on letting go of having to be one or the other and embracing the wholeness of wholeheartedness

*It’s not either or…..it’s AND and BOTH
*Revival 356 
-Get off the world’s rhythm and get on God’s rhythm
-Remind women who God created them to be