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.
The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.
I have found that I always learn more from my mistakes than from my successes. If you aren't making some mistakes, you aren't taking enough chances.
Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth.
If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.
No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability.
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