Take It In: Or, How to be Vulnerable!
One of the patterns I recognize a lot in the people that I work with and with people who are drawn to self-development and working on themselves and really improving their lives and coaching and mentoring and therapy, there is a very common, almost measurable quality which is they are all incredibly generous, caring, thoughtful, sincere, aware, people who are compassionate, want to help others, want to do good, purpose driven. Yet the commonality seems to be that they have difficulty in receiving all of that for themselves, being able to really take it in.
So what I want to talk today about is what it means to really take it in.
I was giving an analogy to one of my clients yesterday about how to think of this.
In many ways, it's about intimacy. Taking something in is about being seen, it's about – there is almost a barrier of shame that comes up in being seen and yet, that's really what we want.
We just don't trust that we are going to be embraced and accepted once we are...
All Hands On Deck
Our yearning to belong stems from a deep longing to be...
Am I alone in craving to feel more connected? probably not. Am I off track to be constantly looking for more personal interactions with friends and family? I doubt it. Is anyone out there blogging about it? Who knows?
Here I go...
I had an intimately powerful experience this weekend. Indeed, I had no idea that intimacy could have power. I always associated intimacy with vulnerability and softness. Not so.
If you've ever had the gift of "immersing" yourself in the care of trusted friends, there's a strength in surrendering to their collective wisdom. We don't see ourselves as we are. We barely see ourselves as we'd like to be. We see only our limited idea of who we are. That's the gift of friendship. Assuming you have friends you can trust.
How would you know?
Over the decades, my idea of friendship has chopped and changed... A friend is someone who tells you the truth; a man who treats you like a man; a woman who reflects...
