Can You Be Vulnerable?
What a tough thing to do! To be vulnerable and open in this world when it feels as though around every corner is a sharp edge. We all have a tendency to close up and “button the hatches” in our own effort to stay safe. How safe are you in that walled off place of living? What is your true experience behind that protective shield?
As many of you have noticed I, too, have closed up and been going through the trenches with my high-waisted boots on just hoping to get to the other side. I am about half way there. The water is so deep at times that my boots fill up and weigh me down. At other times, when I allow myself to grasp a life jacket floating by, I’m able to drop the load a bit and carry on. Thank you all for the life jackets.
To stay in a state of vulnerability and hold no outcome to the process has definitely been a lesson in self-awareness for me. To be vulnerable, as Webster says, “is being capable of being wounded, open to attack or damage, liable to increased penalties but entitled to increased bonuses.”
Can we hold a state of vulnerability when we really put ourselves out there?
We are all born into this world open, trusting and vulnerable. We trust that our needs and wants will be met. The more we experience life the more we close ourselves off in many cases. We have all met the elderly person that has been so wounded by their perception of life that they react only from a place of fear and anger. Likewise, we all have met the elderly person that has stayed open to life, all that there is to learn and grow from, and we see a person that reacts from a place of love and gratefulness.
Who do you want to be? I know that I want to end on the other side of this journey more loving, more open and more giving then I am now. I want to be defined by the positive changes that being open and vulnerable have created in me. Want to join me?
Who are you now?
What can you learn from that place and what more can you give from that place?
As always, your insights, comments and additions to the subject are welcome with open arms!
Happy Vulnerability!
