#65 Vulnerability

“The emperor has no clothes.”

Here is a word most of us try hard to shy away from. It has multiple meanings, which pretty much encircle being undefended. What I want to focus on here is emotional openness which leads to self-understanding. This process calls for balance for sure, because having personal boundaries is obviously important.

Let’s start with the concept of manifesting because if you’re following this blog, I know that you’re more than interested in that subject. The key to manifesting anything, ranging from the material to the experiential, is to know why we want what we want. Just thinking about that is going to bring about a particular feeling. Are you going to give yourself permission to have that feeling once you achieve that desired outcome? Which feelings do we associate with whatever we call success in life? Then we have to ask if we’re willing to have those feelings now, even before anything changes in the landscape of our experience. And if not, what do we believe would happen if we did feel those ways at this moment?

An example might be if you aspire to a better career, one that will make you feel stimulated, competent, productive, relied on and more in charge of your own destiny. Right this minute, are you able to bring up those inner sensations, surround yourself with them and feel at home? If you are, you’re basically ready for the new situation. As a matter of fact, it’s already flying toward you from the unseen because as you should know, when you visualize with the emotion of already experiencing the outcome, the ingredients for that fulfillment are already coming together. On the other hand, if you’re not ready, then getting acquainted with the general feeling of yes will become your assignment.

Another common example would be of course relationships. If for instance you are looking for a new love in your life, but are harboring the loss of your previous relationship due to natural occurrences or otherwise, can you allow yourself to feel the good feelings of once again being in love? Or would those ugly feelings of the previous loss overpower the possibility of something new? You have to be vulnerable here.

When you invite your feelings to speak, a lot of information comes forward, not all of it serene. I believe that we need to be open to knowing why we made various decisions or how we handled random occurrences. We need to befriend our own emotional world instead of hiding from parts of it.

Vulnerability, then, is really embracing the uncomfortable, just as an aspect of love is becoming susceptible to grief. Emotional vulnerability allows us to see how we have attached inner meaning to outer circumstances.

Dissecting the self like this is a good beginning to go even deeper into the multi-dimensionality of who you really are. Once you awaken to that, vulnerability loses not only its meaning, but its grip on your life.