Redefining Strength: The Importance of Vulnerability in Mental Health

Hello lovely souls! Let’s talk about the beautiful concept of vulnerability!

In a world where mental health has become increasingly important, one of the struggles we still face in our society, is the art of being vulnerable. We, as humans, are so many things. We are diverse, inquisitive, and most of all – we are here for this journey that we call life. How we allow this journey to take place is not predetermined by anything other than ourselves, our actions, and most of all – our feelings.

Our feelings are so integral to who we are as a person. We feel a spectrum of emotions, variants of each kind, like multiple different shades and hues of each emotion that differ in complexity and effects it has on us. We are what we feel. A huge part of what makes us human is vulnerability.

Vulnerability is a powerful term and quality to possess. Although, it can be incorrectly associated with weakness due to the controversial views people have on wearing your heart out on your sleeve. It also comes with recognizing and taking accountability towards your feelings. Believe it or not, vulnerability is a huge stepping stone to the magical art of healing. Vulnerability is a magnificent strength. It is most certainly overlooked and written off as unnecessary and stupid.

Vulnerability ties up the character of an individual. How a person deals with traumatic events in their life is one thing, but how present they are for their feelings and how they may express them is truly what makes up the essence of an individual. Expressing these emotions don’t have to be to anyone else, it can just be with yourself! Vulnerability does not solely depend on an individual’s ability to reach out for help externally, but to rather find access to how to connect to feelings that can be larger than us and may tend to take over us, and admit to ourselves that something is hurting us and is a part of us – for the moment at least. It hurts to feel unpleasant torpedoes of emotions after something devastating, taking the reins and conveying to ourselves that these emotions are present and valid, is vulnerability.

In today’s society, where we encourage physical strength, academic stress, and resilience – in the wrong way, being vulnerable is frowned upon. Toxic stereotypes have taken over the world, with emotional capacity in any form being attributed to something only certain gender groups or age groups take part in. All of us are some amounts of masculine and feminine in nature, a gender doesn’t change someone’s ability to be vulnerable. Neither does someone's age.  Not being vulnerable does more damage in the longer run and can have so many different implications. Not addressing heavy feelings and traumatic events in your life, can impact your mind, body, and soul. A person as beautiful as you deserve to be able to get access to be the best version of yourselves, and a large part to that is vulnerability!

Vulnerability, not only helps you form a better bond with yourself but also helps greatly in your personal relationships that exist, and relationships that are to come. Seeking authentic connections can be a benefit from practicing vulnerability since it can definitely help you connect with like-minded individuals. Perhaps, it can help you make friends that help you feel like this world and life is easier with them around! Compassion and empathy are key components of vulnerability and healthy relationships. The simple practice of vulnerability can bring so many positive changes, internally with yourself and externally with others!

Photo by  Marco Bianchetti Team  on  Unsplash

Practicing vulnerability and accountability can be a huge task to undertake alone, especially if you’re someone that tends to be overwhelmed by how these feelings can present themselves – and that is okay! Very often, each and everyone of us look into our emotional abyss and are not sure on how to tackle what we are faced with! It is definitely scary and new to many of us, but it is a habit that we can practice to get better! Working with a mental health professional on these feelings that may feel larger than life sometimes, can really help! Heart It Out is the organization for this. They do beautiful work with healing and mental health! You can find out more about them by clicking here.

Just like we all have a colour palette, we also have a feelings palette. We get to mix different colors with each other to make new beautiful ones. In that same way, we can incorporate vulnerability with different hues of our feelings – and hey, it becomes a beautiful new shade of you! Vulnerability is an art, and you of course, are also art! It’s obvious that beautiful concepts attract each other, so pretty human, give into vulnerability – it’s calling you!

Photo by  Andrew Ridley Team  on  Unsplash