People speak about vulnerability.
How it is the key to our authenticity.
That when we are vulnerable we are truly being strong.
And how it is essential for intimacy.
YET THE WORD VULNERABILITY IS RARELY DEFINED.
For what truly is vulnerability?
How do we know when we are really being vulnerable with another person?
Vulnerability is often defined as being exposed, or open to the possibility of harm.
Some say it is the willingness to take risk by showing our emotions in spite of our fears.
Still others say that it is about acknowledging the uncomfortable emotions such as anger, shame or loneliness.
AND SOMEHOW ALL OF THESE DEFINITIONS DON’T QUITE CAPTURE THE TEXTURE OF IT.
For true vulnerability is something much deeper.
It is something that reaches into the very essence of our soul.
We understand what real vulnerability is when we see someone embodying it in front of us.
THE FEELING OF IT IS SO PERVASIVE THAT IT STRIKES A PART OF US DEEP INSIDE AND OPENS OUR HEARTS.
It connects us to another person in a way that nothing else does.
Vulnerability is standing in our truth, and baring our soul for another to witness.
Laying open our deepest wounds for others to feel, just as we are feeling them ourselves in the moment.
It is a shared moment in time where we allow others to see us at our most naked.
FOR WHEN WE ARE VULNERABLE, WE ARE NOT HIDING ANYTHING.
We are living and breathing into our truth so deeply that anyone witnessing us can not help but to feel the same emotions that we are revealing to them.
Vulnerability may involve our pain, our suffering, and our trauma.
Or it can simple be an expression of our love for someone that we do not know if it will be reflected back to us.
Sometimes it can be as simple as sharing a smile with a stranger when we are feeling gratitude for all we have, yet seeing that they have so little.
True vulnerability is simply being our true selves in front of someone who may not know how to be true themselves.
AND THE BEAUTIFUL THING ABOUT VULNERABILITY IS ITS ABILITY TO BRING US TOGETHER.
To unite us in a shared experience.
Opening our hearts to someone whose heart is already open.
Creating a moment in time that is both giving and receiving simultaneously.
For when we are being vulnerable, we allow others to be vulnerable as well.
And someone else’s vulnerability allows us to be vulnerable too.
So vulnerability is not some trick to get someone to feel what you want them to feel.
IT IS A SACRED PRACTICE THAT TIES OUR HUMANITY TO OTHERS.
How can you be more vulnerable in your own life?
Do you know what it feels like to truly be vulnerable with another person?
~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant
Host of The Conscious Consultant Hour
