Freedom in Vulnerability
Freedom in Vulnerability
Sometimes life just seems to throw everything at you all at once. It seems you can’t even catch your breath before the next wave crashes over your head and sends you backwards again. I am currently in that place, and let me say it is not fun at all. It is painful, it is vulnerable, it is raw.
Our natural instinct in this place is to try to make the pain go away. We can do that in a variety of different ways. We can look for something to control, we look for answers, we start organizing, anything to make us feel like we have some measure of control in this messy, hard life. Some of us try to numb the pain, through drinking, food, shopping, sleep, anything to feel something other than the pain. Still others try to “pep-talk” their way through it, hanging on for dear life to any platitude they can find on pinterest, facebook, or from a well meaning friend. Some of us are over achievers and may try all of those.
But what about the alternative? What if we were brave and stayed in the messy, vulnerable, painful place? What if we allowed ourselves the time to grieve, the time to cry out, the time to just be. I believe this is where the healing lies. When we are honest about what we’re feeling, when we stay present and just simply show up. We don’t have to fake it, we don’t have to numb to it, we just have to feel it.
It helps too if we can find someone who has the courage to sit and be present with us.
Julia
