On ‘VULNERABILITY’ By Gertrude Nyatichi

What could be the best definition of vulnerability? What makes one feel vulnerable and what could be the possible negative or positive outcome...

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What could be the best definition of vulnerability? What makes one feel vulnerable and what could be the possible negative or positive outcome of feeling vulnerable?  Most of us would probably say vulnerability would lead to shame. But doesn’t vulnerability make us more human? 

While striving to understand vulnerability and why most people (especially men), never want to consider themselves vulnerable, I came across a great speech by Brene Brown. In her speech, she tries to analyze vulnerability and why fighting the feeling of vulnerability is generally the cause of distress among individuals.

To begin with, she talks about her research on shame. Generally, shame is that fear of disconnection. She went ahead to discuss how vulnerability contributed to this feeling of shame and her statement is as follows: 


In her continued study, she analyzed the common characteristics of people with a strong sense of worthiness and here is what she found out. These individuals had a sense of courage. Courage is the ability to tell the story of who you are, with your whole heart. These folks had the courage to be imperfect. They had the compassion to be kind to themselves first and then to others, because, as it turns out, we cannot practice compassion with other people if we can’t treat ourselves kindly. And the last characteristic;  they had connection. This was the hard part. As a result of authenticity, they were willing to let go of who they thought they should be, in order to be who they were, which you have to absolutely do, for that connection.


How many of us can stand and confess to having vulnerability issues and need to work on accepting it? Vulnerability is the core of shame, fear and our struggle for worthiness but clearly it is also the birthplace of joy, creativity, belonging and love. We also need to believe that we are enough. When we believe we are enough, we will start listening to ourselves and to others. We will be kinder and gentler to ourselves and the people around us. That is the beauty of owning who we are and the power of accepting our vulnerability. To read more posts bu Gertrude, click HERE

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