To be vulnerable, you risk a real possibility of being hurt, sometimes deeply. To be afraid, and you stay guarded, guaranteed to not experience living fully, and connecting completely to the world, both within, and around us. To protect from potential pain and sorrow, is to numb yourself from experiencing beauty and possibility.
There is no right or wrong. Each has its place. Each is necessary even. When one gets out of balance with the other, things get unhealthy. But even unhealthy can lead us to somewhere we need to go personally. So the question always remaims, is feeling all of what life has to offer, the unpredictability and true beauty of living, worth the risk of getting harmed in the process of opening yourself to it.
Somedays, we all answer with a yes, and others, with a no. Only we know which is what we need most in this very moment.
[My friend magenta inspired this musing via her recent post]
Eh.. i’m not a fan of the dichotomy. Huge difference between experiencing life as if everything is a tiger to be fearful of versus assessing and choosing not to engage in masochism, inviting re-traumatization. Huge difference between developing meaningful connections with people you can have healthy bonds, being gradually vulnerable over time or taking a risk on an endeavor because you’ve been building the skills / knowledge etc to improve your odds vs just.. strolling down dark alleys over and over wondering why bad things keep happening 🤔😅
@WhateverWorks i agree 100 percent.. i dont see out views at odds at all.. i think its kind of a forest vs trees thing. Thank you for zooming in.. i really think it adds the other side to the coin i attempted to show. 🙏💙
Your always gonba get hurt at some stage in your life time and time again , you can't avoid it . Im a very vulnerable person by nature and very easily led , i admit that about myself ,but if you try not to be vulnerable and try harden up and become numb , that way of doing all of those motives is another form of hurting yourself , eventually you won't be able to numb yourself and what your numbing the fear comes back a 100 times worse . Its like a volcano, it eventually explodes and it can come out in different forms . One thing i learned about life is you never master it 100% and you be listening to all these spiritual leaders talking about mastering yourself , you never get there . See most people are afraid of there thoughts . Thats why they numb themselves but the more you numb yourself the worse the thoughts can get . It's like theres dark thoughts and dark clouds and they can be powerful, but ignore them at your best (you never get to ignore them 100%) and life gets a lot easier , and usually then if there's a thought stuck in your head constantly usually thats an amend you have to make to someone . It says it in a prayer , to forgive to be forgiven . Im not religious mad but my experience with life i had especially in my suffering about God and the bible all makes sense to me . Another one "As i walk through the shadows of the valley of death" . The whole world is life this , the way i can see it
Hmm It's both. I've always been a bit withdrawn and guarded. Vulnerability is very selective for me, although as I age, I am more free with it now. Cages are no way to live life. Sometimes the vulnerability is for our own catharsis and growth. There's something to be said for embracing or at least acknowledging our full authentic humanness in all it's facets, good and bad.
@Harlow im pretty caged in some ways, and pretty vulnerable in others. We are probably all better at being vulnerable or caged in individual ways, based on so many personal factors.. so many. 🧡😽🥰
SW-User
I can experience life but why do I have to be vunerable to do so ? I can be vunerable but it takes a lot for me to do so .. Even more so these days
