When you hear the words ‘emotional vulnerability’, it can conjure up some anxiety in many. After all, in a lot of the world’s societies, showing emotional vulnerability can sometimes be seen as a weakness. Across the world, for instance, men are expected to cover their emotions and be the “strong” ones, which can breed issues related to toxic masculinity, which can cause enormous issues that radiate throughout society. It’s no secret that emotional vulnerability is a scary thought – the possibility of being hurt and people knowing how you truly feel inside is terrifying. But the fact is that the more you open up to people, the deeper your relationships with others can go. Not sold? Here are some other reasons you should be vulnerable in your interactions with others.
Emotional Vulnerability and Connection
Emotional vulnerability has long been considered a weakness. It’s only been in recent years that our society has begun to promote vulnerability as a strength. Being emotionally vulnerable means you open yourself up to someone else from a place of emotions. You may cry in front of someone, tell someone how you’re truly feeling – whether it’s that you love them or that you are feeling a certain way, such as with depression, or that you have to get a frustration off your chest. By being real with others and demonstrating your feelings, you help to foster bonds and connections that go much deeper than if you weren’t being emotionally vulnerable.
Freedom To Be Real
Being real is one of the most freeing things that you can experience in your life. Not only does it allow you to be who you really are, without needing to worry about being socially accepted or respected, but you begin to cultivate the right crowd of people around you who support you as a real human being with real thoughts, feelings and emotions. This is important for being a happy, functioning person – if you’re not allowed to be your real self, who are you being, anyway?
Authenticity Is Empowering
Have you ever run into a situation where multiple groups of people have different opinions of you because you’ve been a different person with each group? Changing your outer skin or personality like a chameleon can certainly help you win the admiration and friendship of many different groups, but then you’re left having to manage these personas so that you always act and behave how those individual groups and people know you. Authenticity removes this and allows you to be the real you, all the time, with everyone. Emotional vulnerability is part of authenticity – and if you can master authenticity, you’re onto one of the most empowering experiences of your life. Get ready to be the real you, in every situation because that’s the beauty of authentic living – you get to live your best self, every day, in every way.
If you’ve been wondering why you should allow yourself to be more vulnerable, hopefully this article will help you understand the power of emotional vulnerability and why it’s a great thing to embrace. Take that leap of faith – you never know how magical it can be!