Brad Stulberg

And that is so hard.

So as I mentioned earlier, what ended up happening is I just felt all this cognitive dissonance between what the sociologist Irvin Goffman would say, my front stage self or the self that the world sees me as and my backstage self, which is who I actually am.

And having that wide chasm just made me feel like shit.

So the first and number one reason I wrote that article was to close that gap.

And then I think that once that happened, I realized that, A, as I mentioned earlier, so many other people are going through things.

And every human's going through something.

Maybe it's not mental illness.

Maybe it's physical illness.

Maybe it's not physical illness.

It's relationship problems.

Maybe it's not relationship problems.

It's feeling of loneliness because I'm still single and the world tells me I shouldn't be and on and on and on.

So everyone has their shit.

And we all walk around with armor, hiding our shit.

But the minute that someone takes down that armor and shares their , everyone else is like, oh my gosh, you have too.

So do I, we can really connect.

And man, that is so true.

And that experience taught me that.

And then in addition to connecting with other people, and Brene Brown, the researcher from Houston who really made vulnerability like a cultural thing, has done such a beautiful job of writing about this benefit of vulnerability, connecting with other people.

Something that I explore in the book that is perhaps a little bit different is it also helps you connect with yourself.