What does our culture not value that is highly rewarding? – Vulnerability.

For many, to be vulnerable is to appear weak – a fate worse than death.

Vulnerability has gotten a bad rap and I don’t believe it’s been explored fully enough to see and, more importantly, feel the benefits it delivers.

I recently attended a workshop with ten people – 9 men and 1 woman. The purpose of the workshop was to wake up. What I discovered is that an essential step towards awakening is allowing yourself to open. That means dropping your guard and allowing yourself and others to discover what’s really there. It was highly scary, at least for me.

I saw others open like flowers and wanted the same for me. What were they doing that I was missing? They became vulnerable. My experience in the past was that when you are in a group with 8 other men, it’s not the cultural norm to display your underbelly, but one-by-one I got to witness just that.

It became glaringly apparent that to get what this workshop offered I had to become vulnerable. The good news is I didn’t have to will it to happen; I only had to be willing to let it happen, and it did. I became vulnerable and the reward was an openness I had never before experienced.

Our culture idolizes strength and abhors weakness which is our Achilles heel. That mindset delivers far more defeats than victories yet we continue to employ it even though we’re losing the battle.

I highly recommend you get curious about vulnerability. You may have to dismantle lots of conditioning to get there but I can attest that the reward exponentially outweighs the risk.

The insight I got was this: If you are attempting to hold your shit together, just notice what you’re holding on to.

All the best,

John