Naked, Vulnerable and Exposed!
Have you ever noticed how comfortable young children are with their nakedness?
Both my niece and nephew absolutely love bath time. It's their opportunity to break free from their clothes and exist in a lightness and freedom, otherwise not expressed.It is extremely evident that they are 100% comfortable in their exposed and very vulnerable state.
While this is true for most of us at that tender age, somewhere along life’s journey, our natural and authentic comfortableness with our nakedness, both figuratively and literally changes. Instead, we arduously seek to hide and cover up from others and more so ourselves.
Our socialization plays a major role in this occurrence. At a certain age, usually around the time our bodies start changing and maturing, our parents and society demand that we cover up and cloak ourselves for several reasons but more so, as is said, to uphold a sense of decency.
While I believe their intentions are good and there is merit in this possibility, there are many, unconsidered side effect. Many of us usually develop a noticeable discomfort with our physical nakedness. Also a strong need to hide the aspects of ourselves we deem to be unacceptable emerges. And our resistance to being vulnerable and exposed is heightened.
Allowing ourselves to be comfortable with being vulnerable, exposed and naked however, especially with ourselves, is one of the keys to our healing and journey back to our sense of wholeness and completeness.
This was one of the realizations that radically changed my life just about 4 years ago. Prior to this eureka moment, I believed that 'outsiders' should never witness the dark, painful and 'not so good' aspects of myself. They were only allowed to view the parts of me that were good, acceptable and pleasing.
The challenge with this dynamic however, was, I became so good at hiding and covering up those dark aspects of myself from others that I began hiding them from the most important person, me.
It is said that one of the first steps to fixing a problem, is admitting you have one. Because I allowed myself to unveil and allowed myself to see beneath the surface, under all of the layers, to the parts that were not very attractive and glamorous but to the parts that urgently needed my attention, I was able to welcome my needed healing.
I must admit, it was not an easy process. I was constantly bombarded with thoughts of, what would people think and how I would be perceived, if anyone found out. However, once I was able to move past these limiting beliefs and allowed myself the permission to acknowledge the existence of my darkness and deal with them, life as I knew changed.
No longer was I intimidated and threatened by my emotional junk, insecurities and fears. No longer was I subjected to the perceived opinions and expectations of others. No, instead, I welcomed my darkness with open arms because they were the doorway to my healing, growth and transformation.
I firmly believe that it takes courage and true love for self to come face to face with your darkness but once you are able to surrender to it and allow yourself to be cleansed and purified, the end result is all worth it.
Giving myself permission to be vulnerable has helped me to see myself beyond the pain, beyond the hurt, beyond the expectations, beyond the mask. It has helped me to heal and reclaim my freedom.
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