I’ve had the beautiful book, Atlas of the heart by Brene Brown, sitting on my bookshelf for ages. I pick it up at times and find myself reading a section in depth or a quote in big print or just looking at the thoughtful pictures and diagrams. This is an inspiring book about the importance of connection through increasing our emotional language and building bridges with each other to know love. Lately I’ve been thinking about Brown’s book in relation to my work on building a theory of love to address issues of lovelessness caused by violence and injustice. I found some of the feelings Brown writes about - eg love, lovelessness, heartbreak - are directly ones I have used in a more socio-political way and in so doing I have understated the power of emotions in experiences of broken-heartedness.
In this podcast I share some examples of Brown’s work about emotions and focus on several that are directly related to broken-heartedness - such as anguish, betrayal and hopelessness. In so doing I am beginning the task of placing our emotions at the centre of my theory of love instead of our emotional internal world being largely absent.
Do let me know what you think! Thanks for listening!
You can support my work by grabbing a copy of Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice via the publisher’s website - https://www.revolutionaries.com.au/books
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If you would like to be interviewed for a podcast on what love means to you, please reach out to me on dyannross@dyannross.com
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