From Vulnerability to Authenticity

Life may appear safer when we avoid vulnerability but is it?

Do you feel uncomfortable being vulnerable? Do you try to hide what you feel and think and become overly defensive when someone seems to criticize you? Do you avoid intimacy and feel attacked by people who want to get close to you? Vulnerability is one of the least appreciated emotions and one of the most misunderstood.

Especially once we have been disappointed or hurt making ourselves vulnerable again, doesn't seem like an option. And even though the protective armor we have squeezed ourselves into eventually becomes too tight and too heavy, we continue to hold on to the illusion of being safer this way. 

  The Problem Is That Vulnerability Is Regarded As Weakness

The belief is that the more vulnerable we are, the easier we can get hurt or taken advantage of.We don't realize that the pain we are causing ourselves by shutting down and keeping our hearts closed can be greater than what other people may do to us. Life may appear safer when we avoid vulnerability - but it doesn't make it happier.