The Etymology of the word “vulnerability” is wound. The translation is, “as the open wound.” For many of us, our interpretation of this is, “Ahhh! That means somebody’s going to touch me and it’s going to hurt!” And we have plenty of evidence to confirm that if we choose vulnerability, it means pain and suffering. What if vulnerability is something completely different than what you’ve thought it was? What if vulnerability is actually one of the keys to having everything in your life that you’ve wanted to have but haven’t known how to get to? And what if no body’s been able to show you a tangible way… a way that you can choose… to actually be whatever is true for you?
Image or Vulnerability?
When you have an open wound, it is highly sensitive. Just the air blowing across it is uncomfortable, or some would say even painful.
Often times, when we experience what we have identified as pain, physically or emotionally, we do the opposite of vulnerability. We don’t want the “wound” to be uncovered and exposed. We’ve decided that it hurts too much. So we cover it up. We cover US up. We put up walls. Fortify the barriers. Defend. Protect. Prove. We present the solid portrayal of who we’re trying to be in the world – our image.
Do you realize that most people are functioning from their image? And, do you realize that most of the interactions that happen between people is image interacting with image? When we choose image, (the thing you portray to the world of who you’ve decided you’re supposed to be) we are not in question. We are proving. We are not in curiosity. We are defending. We are not in possibility. We are hiding. We are not in creation. We are protecting.
For many of us, proving, defending, upholding the image, is an automatic response. What would it take to choose something different?
Choosing Vulnerability – Pain versus Intensity
Let’s look at pain. What if what we call pain is actually intensity? When we decide that something is painful, we automatically resist against it. When we resist, we lock it in – into our bodies, into our thoughts and into our emotions. It’s solid. It’s final.
Intensity is different. It’s an awareness and an acknowledgement of what is occurring without the point of view that, “This is bad or wrong and I must make it stop!” When you have all of your awareness and don’t cut off any of it, you experience the intensity. At times it does feel like the breeze blowing across an open wound. But if you don’t conclude anything about it, if you don’t identify it as pain, as something that needs to go away, the energy is able to shift and change to create something new. Would you be willing to let go of your definition of pain? Would you be willing to have allowance for intensity?
Losing Definitions
Now let’s consider vulnerability. How many definitions do you have of vulnerability that are actually not vulnerability? Would you be willing to let those go? Would you be willing to have the awareness of what true vulnerability is? And, when you do have the awareness of what true vulnerability is, would you be willing to choose it?
When we choose vulnerability, which is the willingness to actually be there with all of you and the greatness of you, and we don’t shut off anybody else or buy their image, all of a sudden we become an invitation for them to come out of their image if they’re willing to; and, an invitation for them to have no relevance in our world if they’re not willing to.
Vulnerability – having all of your awareness without cutting off any of it.
Vulnerability – exposing what is really true as far as your capacities and potencies that you’ve been trying to hide and pretend did not exist.
Vulnerability – the place where you are with no barriers, no walls. Actually the place of total potency, total power, total capacity.
Would you be willing to choose a level of vulnerability with yourself? Would you be willing to choose a level of vulnerability that hasn’t existed on the planet?
Good bye image! Hello vulnerability!
