What Does it Mean to be Wholehearted?

Brene Brown describes it like this:

In The Gifts of Imperfection, I defined ten “guideposts” for Wholehearted living that point to what the Wholehearted work to cultivate and what they work to let go of:  

1. Cultivating Authenticity: Letting Go of What People Think
2. Cultivating Self-Compassion: Letting Go of Perfectionism
3. Cultivating a Resilient Spirit: Letting Go of Numbing and Powerlessness
4. Cultivating Gratitude and Joy: Letting Go of Scarcity and Fear of the Dark
5. Cultivating Intuition and Trusting Faith: Letting Go of the Need for
6. Certainty Cultivating Creativity: Letting Go of Comparison
7. Cultivating Play and Rest: Letting Go of Exhaustion as a Status Symbol and Productivity as Self-Worth
8. Cultivating Calm and Stillness: Letting Go of Anxiety as a Lifestyle
9. Cultivating Meaningful Work: Letting Go of Self-Doubt and “Supposed To”
10. Cultivating Laughter, Song, and Dance: Letting Go of Being Cool and “Always in Control” 

Brown, Brené (2012-09-11). Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (pp. 9-10). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Into the Woods

It has been over 4 years since my conversations with Randy.

Since then, I have had many long discussions with my dear friend Sam Meacham​. He went from being Mormon, to agnostic to atheist. I could tell he was doing it because he was following his conscience. What he thought was right and good and true.

I came to understand that faith can be complex. My faith started simply. I then grew and left childish things. I discarded some beliefs that I had taken for face value just because someone older and seemingly wiser knew them.

What is objectively true is very important. More important is what we believe to be true because, at critical times, it influences us more than the objective truth. How can we be sure that what we believe to be true is the objective truth? I am convinced that none of us have ever matched up completely. The earth used to be objectively flat. Comets used to be portends of destruction. We all see through dark, dark glasses. Trying to perceive what is real. I trust that someday we will see brightly.

I believe that the darkness we find ourselves in this life is by design. That we are supposed to try and figure out what is true and good and right. And then do our best to live by it. We are to dare greatly. To step out of the cocoons we grew up in. Out into the world into the woods. I trust that we will continue to have many adventures here. I look forward to them.