Do NOT close your heart

I have just spent two days at the Nordic Business Forum here in Finland. As always the days were filled with interesting talks on various subjects and I truly enjoyed the success story of Spanx founder Sara Blakely. Not to mention Gospel singer, and Morgan and Stanleys Managing Director Carla Harris. What Amazing and Brave women. 

My key learning from this year and what I have been struggling with in my own life came from Brené Browns words on courage and how we so easily armor up because we don't want to get our hearts hurt. Because you see......

As Brown so well puts it:

"WE ARE ALL AFRAID.

IT IS HOWEVER NOT THE FEAR, BUT THE ARMOR 

THAT GETS IN FRONT OF COURAGE".  - Brenè Brown

Do you armor up when you fear things?  

This thing about the heart and the armor has been such a huge revelation for me in the past few months. As we go along this little path called life we tend to learn new things daily. What I had never ever before realized is that already from a young age I had been so insecure and uncertain that rather than just being afraid it was easier to shut down. It was easier to put on an armour that nobody can really penetrate. It is the kind of armor as my Dear friend Auli Nissinen says that always comes up whenever we start to get even a little closer to opening it up. That kind of armor that we are hardly ever aware of before we finally sit there at Nordic Business Forum and watch Brené Brown and realize: SH**..... That's the thing. 

That is the thing that stands in front of it all. It stands in front of my vulnerability, it stands in front of my heart getting to know another heart and it definitely stands in front of myself letting my soul believe in its own true calling.

So today I really felt that if there is that one message I want to teach my Daughter it is this: 

"Kom ihåg att alltid hålla ditt hjärta öppet." - "Remember to always keep your heart open". 

Because that is what it really boils down too. We can close ourselves down or we can stay open even if we feel scared. As Brown also said, it does not mean that we get totally naked. We can have strong boundaries and still have our hearts pure and unarmored.