Vulnerability is a strength not a weakness.
Vulnerability is having the courage to show up, show our feelings, be intimate in our relationship with others and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.
We are born vulnerable and stay that way for our entire childhood. Our relationship with vulnerability is something we are familiar with as children, yet sometimes abandon as we experience pain and hurt, and merge into adulthood.
Depending on individual circumstances, some of us then tend to unconsciously build a wall around our vulnerability. We can then become afraid and find it hard to reveal our true feelings as well as other aspects of ourselves to others. This is because, it’s actually easier to protect ourselves by suppressing our emotions and holding everything in. The ego self likes to protect its image and vulnerability is a crack in its armour.
To break down our heart’s protective shell and to heal our past pain, it’s imperative to feel and process all of our emotions fully. In a nutshell, when we allow ourselves to feel then we can heal. Being with our feelings can be painful, as all sorts of psyche and sentiments can rise to the surface, however, eventually, we are able to process them and then let them go. Letting down your guard is a commitment to healing, moving forwards in life, contentment and personal growth. Releasing a grudge, forgiving, learning to love again, speaking from your heart with feeling and compassion, being open, truthful and intimate in all relationships means taking off your protective mask and allowing yourself to be vulnerable. Therefore, what is required in order to heal is a shift in our awareness so that we learn to stay open and strengthen our emotional well-being.
All of life’s past experiences and emotions are held in our physical body. To heal means allowing ourselves to also be vulnerable in our yoga practice rather than using our practice to mask emotion. Yoga can bring us into our bodies to explore being vulnerable and we can teach our minds to dwell there.
In the yoga studio, I often witness students feeling very uncomfortable or even fearful, particularly in postures that open the front body. Opening the heart centre, shoulders and upper back for many, takes a lot of courage physically mentally and emotionally. An animal only ever reveals its front body when it feels safe, secure, relaxed and loved and human beings are no exception.
When we hold on or cloak our feelings, we also unknowingly but instinctively protect our front body, consequently creating a hardness especially around our upper body. However, stretching, expanding, lifting and softening the chest can really help to release emotions that have become trapped and held here.
“What happens when people open their hearts? They get better.” — Haruki Murakami
Yoga is way of taking yourself into life’s pulsing heart. It will inevitably lead you to your own vulnerability, to your raw places. But vulnerability also opens the door to love, grace, and the deepest forms of healing. Your vulnerability, scary as it can be, is inseparable from your capacity for intimacy so if you push it away, you’re also pushing away love and we all deserve to love and be loved.
Vulnerability is the birthplace of belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. Vulnerability is a commanding act of strength and courage. vulnerability is the core, the heart, the centre of meaningful human experiences.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
Rumi
With Love B xx