vul·ner·a·ble
vəln(ə)rəb(ə)l
adjective
1. susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm.
2. (of a person) in need of special care, support, or protection because of age, disability, or risk of abuse or neglect.
I’ve come across some different thoughts on vulnerability in the last months when looking externally for support in examining my own reactions to life situations that created this feeling in me. Initially, vulnerable for me meant fear of exposure or weakness. Exposure of what? What kind of weakness? Feelings. Uncertainty. It could be any number of things. Perhaps above all it meant giving the thinking of others power over my response, as I was holding the possible interpretations and opinions of others as more important or equal to my own thinking, and worse, heeding this before my intuition.
I’ve seen another description of vulnerability as giving into trust absolutely. Trusting ourselves and giving ourselves permission to follow our hearts can be a scary thing to do. Sometimes our hearts want to go places that aren’t comfortably familiar. We truly want to go along, but fear of the unknown can keep us stagnant. Fear needs to be recognized so that it can be embraced for the opportunity it provides us in honoring the path of the heart.
The heart doesn’t know vulnerability as the mind and body do. The heart is unpracticed in fear, abuse, neglect, and judgments. Any label we may try to attach to the reasons we detach from our hearts is a restriction created by us.
There are also those who may say vulnerability does not exist, and that there are only matches and non matches in emotional frequency to the encountered experience in reality. I like this one because it disempowers vulnerability and supports the idea that everything is always exactly as it’s intended to be. No matter the course or your part in it, there is nothing to wish any differently than what was, what is, and what will be. You can embrace any feelings that are associated with vulnerability as reassurance that you are experiencing life for all it has to offer, should you choose to allow what is presented before you.
Presence and Positivity 