Shame and Vulnerability

We all have a story. We all have experienced a version of suffering, pain, trauma yet we don’t often talk about it because we’ve been taught that all those “negative” things are something to be ashamed of. And too, it’s vulnerable. We live in a culture that has conditioned us to believe that all hard emotions are negative and that pain or trauma is something to be ashamed of. We’ve been taught to always be happy and positive and successful. But are we really happy? Are we really free? It’s my belief and experience that when we learn to own our experiences with love and full acceptance, naming the shame and actually coming towards ourselves rather than trying to “get rid” of parts of ourselves, pretending they don’t exist (which only deepens our shame), we feel fully liberated. Because when we own our entire experience and humanity within ourselves, we feel relief, empowerment, wholeness and safety. And when we feel safe within ourselves, sharing our vulnerability—or just our humanity, to be honest—becomes an empowering act. It becomes liberating. I share a bit of my story today just to open the door for you to perhaps know that there is no shame in your story either. That all things can be healed and transformed if we hold them with love. There’s nothing wrong with you. There never was. Life happens and sometimes it hurts. However, it offers us the opportunity to discover who we truly are beneath the many layers of who we think we should be. May this be an invitation for you to begin the conversation with yourself, someone you love, someone you trust. *I want to add that in doing the healing work, I’m not insinuating that we need to relive our trauma. I’m sayinginstead that the act of holding our wounded parts with love, without getting into the story of it, is what I’ve found to be the fastest route to healing. It’s about giving ourselves loving attention. It’s about holding ourselves instead of rejecting or abandoning these parts of ourselves that maybe we don’t like. It’s about walking towards rather than away. The simple act of showing up for ourselves with love vs judgment, is life changing.