Let’s Be Honest – It’s Hard to be Vulnerable

I have a post that I started, and was planning to publish last week; that was until I re-read it. The things that I let come out of me were very eye opening. I was about to post something deeply vulnerable and it scared the crap out of me. It brought out some truths that I hadn’t looked at in that light. It made me realize I wasn’t being as honest as I thought, with myself.

Why is opening up so scary? We worry we won’t be accepted, or maybe we’ll get hurt. We worry that we may hurt others. Or that we will hurt ourselves.

We talk to ourselves more than we talk to anyone else, yet we lie to ourselves constantly. We create ideas and scenarios of situations that “may happen” and build our life around them. We tell ourselves that people do or don’t like us for certain traits we carry. We tell ourselves we feel good when we don’t. We tell ourselves we want what we don’t, we’re ok to settle, even though our dreams and desires are much bigger.

So, why not just be honest with ourselves? Why not look at ourselves in the light of vulnerability and still show ourselves love? Maybe something happened in life to make us think we can’t or won’t be loved for who we are. Or maybe our vulnerability was taken advantage of and used to create weakness so another could control and manipulate us. Whatever the reason is that we began to lie to ourselves, we owe it to ourselves to be honest and open.

We deserve the desires we hold in our hearts. We deserve to be seen wholly and completely as the beautiful creations we are. We deserve to be open and vulnerable, while still being strong and confident.

Yes, being vulnerable is hard. Yes, it is uncomfortable. Yes, it makes us want to run the other way. But growth happens in the discomforts in life. And there is so much beauty in being honest with yourself.