To truly belong somewhere, we don't need to change who we are; we need to be ourselves. In a society characterized by the effort to please everyone, and with the erosion of kindness spreading around us, it’s easy to remain silent, to hide in our ideological prisons, or to do everything to fit in, instead of being present with our authentic selves and defying the wild wilderness of uncertainty and criticism.

True belonging is not something we negotiate or achieve with others: it is a daily practice that requires us to have consistency and integrity. It is a personal commitment that we carry in our hearts. Through four practices, Brené Brown offers us the clarity and courage we need to find our way back to ourselves and to the people around us. And this journey goes straight through the wild wilderness.

“The wild wilderness,” Brown writes, “is an untamed and unpredictable place, full of loneliness and seeking. It is a place as dangerous as it is exhilarating, appearing to be the cradle of true belonging.” The four practices of authentic belonging require us to feel vulnerability, even discomfort, and to learn to coexist with the people around us without sacrificing who we are and what we value.

Each practice invites us to challenge what we believe about ourselves, to be present in the lives of others, and to rediscover the path of courage and meaningful connection and communication. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. The courageous exercise we must undertake is to protect our unruly hearts from constant evaluation—especially our own.

Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, is a researcher and professor at the University of Houston. She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, and has written bestselling books, including: Dare to Lead, Braving the Wilderness, and Rising Strong. Her TED talk—“The Power of Vulnerability”—is one of the five most popular TED talks in the world, with over 55 million views to date.