vulnerability: what are you willing to feel?

vulnerability is part of the human existence. without it, we are just going thru the motions. thinking instead of feeling. vulnerability makes life worth living, risks worth taking + feels worth feeling. It separates real from fake. it defines ego vs heart.

Vulnerability is a gift. A gift you give yourself + a gift you give to others...if you’re willing.
Without vulnerability, there is no connection + It can be given + received in big ways or small.  eye sex sporadically on the street, in a coffee shop, on my morning run, I get laid multiple times a day. Locking eyes is vulnerable. The alternative is not seeing - or being seen. It is avoiding connection, looking away, hiding. But if you see -- you are seen, recognized, acknowledged, creating connection. it is intimate.

Vulnerability thru locking eyes with a stranger, sharing a secret with a friend, or opening your heart to a lover, big or small, you are allowing someone in, with the potential outcome unknown - stranger looks away, secret is judged or shared, lover is uninterested. Vulnerability isn’t easy + as a result of hardship,  rejection or failure, we close off,  become guarded, are shy. As humans, we wear a shield, to protect, + guard our bodies, our feelings, our hearts. Our shields come in all types of armor - shyness, boldness, bitchiness, over-sexualness, center of attention extroverted-ness.

But what happens when we let people in -- in work, life, love? ... let our guard down - let something in, with no expectation, because the only thing we can truly control is ourselves. So as we unmask + open up, there is the possibility that we are received + the possibility that we are not. But if you are not willing to lose, then you are not willing to win. Not as a game, but as part of existence.

Be willing to come undone in everything. Conversation, life, love... Because what else is there? If you’re not willing to open up, then you remain closed off. Stuck in your head, disconnected from your heart. Thinking, not feeling. Uncharted territory is just that, uncharted. So what are you willing to feel?

And when you are the one asking -- for someone to open their heart + let you in, be clear that is what you want, from your heart -- not your ego. Because hearts are not a game to play. There is no winning, no goal, no conquest. there is just feeling. don't ask for something you're not willing to feel.

Vulnerability is a risk. Life is about getting messy. Messy is sexy.
What are you willing to risk in order to feel?

...