Vulnerability

Vulnerability is a beautiful and powerful thing. In society we have been taught to view vulnerability in a negative light. Many of us associate vulnerability with experiencing pain. I once thought that in order to be vulnerable one must give away a portion of themselves to another. However, I do not need to give myself to another person to be vulnerable, rather vulnerability is instead about sharing our truest self with someone else (which by no means is an easy thing to do). Humanity is weird and crazy and dark. We all have the pretty, soft, and sweet things but we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t also experience the dark, ugly things. Sharing both the good and the bad, the dark and the light, the beauty and the ugly, is what vulnerability is about. Sharing these things is where the root of human connection lies. We are really all just in need of someone to listen to our stories, to comfort us in times of grief and to cheer us on when we succeed. If we define vulnerability in a negative way that is how it will be. Perception is a choice. We design our concepts and journeys in life. If we choose to see something as bad then it will be bad. Instead, I have challenged myself to change my view of vulnerability. As someone who struggles with vulnerability this is both hard and important. Instead of thinking of vulnerability as giving away a part of myself, leaving emptiness within our heart, I have changed my view to thinking of vulnerability as allowing someone into my authentic life. Vulnerability and authenticity are directly related. If a person is not ready to see and accept the true version of you then we must try to accept that and realize that this person is not meant to be in your life. If we are our authentic selves we have nothing to hide and if someone doesn't like what they are receiving things will obviously not work out. This is obviously much more complex in real life. If someone doesn't accept our authentic self it will hurt. Our ego will feel oppressed and we will take it personally but in this world of over 7 billion humans, we are not all meant to like each other. Trying to appeal and please everyone will only drain energy, and waste the precious time we have. We don’t want to waste our time sharing ourselves with someone who will never appreciate us for who we are. This is why it is so important to know ourselves and not change for someone else because if someone wants you to change who you are then they should probably seek out a new person altogether.