Webster’s dictionary defines vulnerability as “the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.”
By its very definition, vulnerability is something to shun or to avoid at all costs.
Why?
Why is that?
Because if I do, I will open myself up to the opinion of others and willfully leave myself exposed.
Will my ideas, life, will I be accepted. Does it, do I really matter?
I don’t know, so what do you do when you’re left exposed or naked?
You cover up!
You put on one layer or facade after another, till even you don’t recognize yourself anymore.
So what is the danger the danger of being vulnerable?
Isolation, misunderstanding – alone – all alone.
So we put on just one more layer of armor, armor that was never meant to fit because it’s not mine to wear in the first place. But wear it I do and I continue to stumble through life, weighed down as I wear this false self, a fake me, hoping beyond hope that this “me” will be accepted and perhaps even loved.
Vulnerability is a prison.
It keeps you locked up and the guards of this prison are shame, guilt, self-loathing and fear.
But, there is one thing…
This prison that you’re locked in, that you have locked yourself in…
You hold the key.
Did you hear me, YOU HOLD THE KEY!!!
So how does any key work?
You have to turn it.
So, turn the key that locks you in and embrace the truth.
Truth is hard, very hard. As I write this, it is very hard, but truth must and it will triumph over the lies that have kept you imprisoned far to long, telling you that if you reach out to others that you are weak, you should be able to handle this yourself.
As I tell myself this one little truth, can I tell it to you as well?
You can’t do it, this life on your own. You were never meant too.
I need other people, we all need other people.
It’s ok to feel the things that you do, to think the things that you do.
It’s ok to be you.
For if we were all a bit more honest – a bit more vulnerable, we would see that we’re not so alone after all.
Others think, feel and in secret, do what you do as well.
Vulnerability doesn’t have to be so limiting.
Yes, you may open yourself to harm, but you may also open yourself to the healing we all so desperately need.
And as you open yourself to receive the gift of help, you in turn, allow yourself to give the help that you have received.
Victor Hugo, a poet, playwright, and novelist once said, “The greatest happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves or rather loved in spite of ourselves.”
Know that you, yes YOU are loved, and if you are the only one who knows this incredible truth, then love yourself and look into the face of God.
“To love another person is to see the face of God.” Victor Hugo
P.S. That prison I spoke of earlier, well vulnerability is a big part of what sets you free.
