Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson

Imperfect and Enough with Brené Brown and Oprah

I’ve been participating in Brené Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection Oprah’s Lifeskills Class over the last 2 weeks. If you don’t already know who she is, check out her TED talk about Daring Greatly (with over 11 million views.)

One of the exercises in the first week, Charting the Wholehearted Journey, was to change our focus and thinking from, “What will people think?” to thinking, “I am enough.” One of the art assignments (oohhh, how fun!) was to take a photo of yourself (oh, not so fun) with the reminder that “I’m imperfect and I’m enough” written on your hand:

I'm Imperfect and I'm Enough, #OLCBreneCourse
I’m Imperfect and I’m Enough, #OLCBreneCourse

It’s ridiculous how many times I re-took my photo to come up with one I liked and still really didn’t. I finally quit and just decided to like myself in my last photo as it was.  The whole thing still makes me uneasy. I’m easily distracted from the main point by all the references to the photography I love including  the film border, stamped cameras and the knowledge that I took it with an iPhone. But the main point remains and leaning into that revelation has been very freeing over these past few days as I have reminded myself over and over in many situations throughout the day, “I am enough.”

This main point reminds me of Psalm 46:10: “Cease striving and know that I am God.” In the notes, that “cease striving” means let go, relax.  LOL. So there truly is nothing new under the sun. We just need reminders in today’s language.

If you want to read more, try Brené’s book The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are or check out her site Brené Brown

I am not being paid to write any of this:) Enjoy, let go, relax.

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12 comments

    • Hi Jennifer, I totally agree with this post. Self acceptance is so hard, but we need to hush the inner turmoil wanting to strive for impossible perfection. Being satisfied with who we are is the first step to inner peace and happiness. Personally, I trust in God to know what He was doing when He made me with all my idiosyncrasies and obsessions. There is always room for improvement within the potential limits He gave me, but for today like you said, “I am enough.”

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  2. I had trouble with my picture, too, Jennifer! It’s quite laughable when you think about it. Your’s looks fabulous, by the way, and I love your creativity!

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  3. Reblogged this on It's Hard To Be Ladylike and commented:
    I am so excited to have discovered a fellow WordPresser who is walking beside me in my journey! I must admit, although I’ve never met Jennifer, I am in complete admiration of her for two reasons:

    1. Based on her blog, she is obviously artistically creative and a genius behind a camera.

    2. She had the nerve to post her “I’m imperfect and I’m enough” photo, something that I never even considered doing. Doesn’t she look perfectly imperfect? I foresee more bonding in my future.

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  5. I am taking this course too. I did a blog entry as well on my photo. We are both brave! Today I updated a mile marker for a year journey I embarked on. Brene’s work is part of my understanding to what self-love is. You can read more at http://www.365daymiracles.com. It’s been a wild 2 weeks with Brene. I have cried alot!

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    • Hi Shakti,
      Thanks for adding me to your related articles list. I read your entry, “Blossoming Where I Am” and I was impressed with how you dug into the question you are pursuing for a year and into Brene’s course. You are brave! Thanks for sharing!

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