Hello on Being Listeners, this is Marie Samboley, one of the audio producers here at On Being

Studios, and this is Living the Questions, where Christa responds to questions from you.

So you've heard a few of these now, but in this one you're going to be hearing something a little

different. It'll be my voice as well as Christa's, as I ask Christa the questions that you sent in.

This time our conversation centered around the idea of vulnerability and empathy,

and how we can cultivate those in our own lives.

A big topic that's kind of in the air and in our conversations on everyone's minds these days

is the question of vulnerability. You know we talk about vulnerability at work, in our relationships

and public, and I'm just wondering, I'm curious how you define vulnerability. What does it mean to you

to be vulnerable? Well, I don't think I'm any better at vulnerability than anyone else.

Even if I can quote Brune Brown and tell you all the science behind vulnerability.

It's just such an example of how just strange we are and how sweet that we need

Brune Brown to come along with her science and like we need to be able to see into our brains

to kind of rediscover this basic truth that never stopped being true, that we're really,

that we are vulnerable from the beginning to the end. And what I'm really aware of and

try to to work with myself on in my own struggle with this is that it's just being kind.

I think we have to be kind to with ourselves in the fact that while this may be an elemental truth,

it's not comfortable to lean into it. And also that we've just been completely trained and educated.

Not to feel this, not to be comfortable with it being part of our truth about ourselves and

certainly not to show it to the outside world. But when we don't do that, we're not actually being

whole and we're not being authentic. So I, if there is any kind of benefit to knowing

to being in this conversation as I am, I just try to carry that knowledge around with me and get more.

...