Shame thrives in silence but dissolves when you tell someone who truly listens. Vulnerability opens the door to empathy, which is the antidote. If you're struggling, reach out to someone you trust. If someone shares their pain with you, just be present.
Where there is empathy, shame struggles to exist. See, if you're a person that deals with shame, toxic shame, debilitating shame that strips you of your self-confidence, your self-worth, and your self-esteem, understand one thing: if you feel shameful about this experience and you open up about it with another human being, the right people. And when you open up about it, somebody offers you empathy. Empathy is emotional understanding. See, the empathy that that person offers you while you're feeling the shame, that empathy significantly reduces the shame. Shame struggles to exist in the presence of empathy. See, shame and empathy are like oil and water. They have a hard time existing at the same place at the same time. So when you're feeling shameful about something, understand that somebody else has been through what you've gone through. And the power is in the vulnerability, because in the vulnerability is where you find that connection. And where you find that connection is where empathy is present. And where there is empathy is present in your life. That shame that you're feeling, that feeling in your stomach, that, that, that, that gnawing feeling in your gut, it ends up getting— it ends up getting fixed. It ends up getting healed just by the empathy that another person offers you. So if you're that person feeling shame today, reach out to somebody else, number one. Number two, if you're that person that's been through that struggle and somebody opens up with you about something, sometimes all you need to do is just be a— be present for them. The deeper the pain, the fewer the words. The deeper the pain, the fewer the words. Sometimes the most powerful thing you could ever do for somebody is to just tell them that you understand and that you know how it feels.
