There is a connection that vulnerability has to both emotional strength and weakness.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read Part 1 Blog Post and Part 2 Blog Post of this series, I would invite you to do so. Vulnerability is such an important yet challenging emotion, and I can only hope that what I have to say is helping you live a life you love.

As we move forward in our discussion, we are going to be concentrating on the connection that vulnerability has to both emotional strength and weakness. As noted last week, you are at your greatest emotional strength when you consciously choose to “put yourself out there” – to take risks to pursue what is meaningful to you.

If you think about or refer to yourself as emotionally weak, it is typically because you are feeling vulnerable in the other direction. In this case, vulnerability is tied to the awareness you could be hurt, because you are not willing to risk facing an unwanted emotional outcome.

Any attitude or behavior that leaves you disconnecting from, distracting from, or suppressing your emotional experiences renders you more vulnerable. When you behave in this manner, you don’t have access to the thoughts, feelings, needs, perceptions, or other streams of information that can help protect you.

As a result, you’re more likely to be hurt because you have fewer emotional resources to respond to difficult situations and events in an authentic and beneficial way (i.e., feel emotionally weaker).

This weeks questions:

Throughout your day, how can you recognize situations where you would be tempted to distract or disconnect from feeling vulnerable?

How can you choose to lean into and embrace those feelings instead?

I’d love for you to respond on my facebook group!

Join my group on Facebook LOVE MY LIFE and let me know. I’ll post the question and jump on myself to chat and answer questions.

To A Life You Love,

Dr. Joan Rosenberg