The Wholehearted Series – Inspired by Brené Brown

Welcome to The Wholehearted Series on The Next Brave Thing podcast.

This special season is a deep dive into what it means to live from the inside out—with integrity, alignment, and courage. Inspired by the transformative work of Dr. Brené Brown, we’re exploring the ten guideposts for wholehearted living from her book The Gifts of Imperfection.

Often, when we're trying to find balance and healing, we find ourselves swinging between extremes. This series is about learning to live from your core values—not the ones handed to you by culture, family, or fear—but the ones that arise from your truest self. It’s about replacing the old operating system of punishment, people-pleasing, and perfectionism with one built on compassion, trust, and authenticity.

Living wholeheartedly means getting our soul, body, and spirit on the same page—no more compartmentalizing, no more hustling for worth. It’s learning to recognize the difference between sacrifice and self-abandonment, and letting go of black-and-white thinking in favor of something deeper, slower, and more whole.

Throughout the series, we’ll unpack these ten guideposts:

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 certainty
6. 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

My hope is that as you listen, your heart would widen, your body would relax, and your spirit would sit up taller. May you reconnect with emotions like joy, wonder, and peace—feelings that don’t need to be earned, just remembered.

Brené’s words have served as a kind of midwife in my own life—delivering me into deeper truth, integrity, and freedom. This series is my way of passing on that gift to you.

Let’s walk the wholehearted way—together.

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