People Are Hard to Hate Close Up. Move In. Have you ever resented, mistrusted or judged someone because their point of view didn’t match yours? Have you ever rushed in to hasty generalisations based on prejudice, the news or social media? I must admit: I have. It’s easy to hate people from afar. However, the hate and anger that we express towards others often mask pain and fear. It’s much easier to be angry than to deal with difficult emotions. In our society pain and fear are often thought to be a sign of weakness, so most of us cover …

Brené Brown starts her book with a quote from Maya Angelou, which, she admits, had been troubling her for years: ‘You are only free when you realise you belong no place—you belong every place—no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.’ But how can you stay connected if you belong nowhere? Brown claims that true belonging is a spiritual practice. We don’t negotiate it with external groups, as true belonging lives in our hearts. Only by staying true to ourselves we can experience sacredness both in being a part of something and standing alone – belonging everywhere …

Ever since I heard of Brené Brown’s new book, I knew I had to read it. It was the title that caught my eye first – ‘Braving the Wilderness: the quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone’. I, too, had been struggling with the sense of displacement throughout my childhood and early twenties, yearning to belong, to find my place and my people. As humans, we are wired for connection. We all want to be part of something. And more often than not we try to gain the sense of belonging by seeking approval and trying to …