People speak about vulnerability.

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How it is the key to our authenticity.

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That when we are vulnerable we are truly being strong.

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And how it is essential for intimacy.

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Yet the word vulnerability is rarely defined.

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For what truly is vulnerability?

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How do we know when we are really being vulnerable with another person?

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Vulnerability is often defined as being exposed, or open to the possibility of harm.

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Some say it is the willingness to take risk by showing our emotions in spite of our fears.

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Still others say that it is about acknowledging the uncomfortable emotions such as anger, shame or loneliness.

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And somehow all of these definitions don't quite capture the texture of it.

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For true vulnerability is something much deeper.

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It is something that reaches into the very essence of our soul.

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We understand what real vulnerability is when we see someone embodying it in front of us.

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The feeling of it is so pervasive that it strikes a part of us deep inside and opens our hearts.

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It connects us to another person in a way that nothing else does.

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Vulnerability is standing in our truth, and baring our soul for another to witness.

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Laying open our deepest wounds for others to feel, just as we are feeling them ourselves in the moment.

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It is a shared moment in time where we allow others to see us at our most naked.

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For when we are vulnerable, we are not hiding anything.

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We are living and breathing into our truth so deeply that anyone witnessing us can not help but to feel the same emotions that we are revealing to them.

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Vulnerability may involve our pain, our suffering, and our trauma.

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Or it can simple be an expression of our love for someone that we do not know if it will be reflected back to us.

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Sometimes it can be as simple as sharing a smile with a stranger when we are feeling gratitude for all we have, yet seeing that they have so little.

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True vulnerability is simply being our true selves in front of someone who may not know how to be true themselves.

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And the beautiful thing about vulnerability is its ability to bring us together.

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To unite us in a shared experience.

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Opening our hearts to someone whose heart is already open.

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Creating a moment in time that is both giving and receiving simultaneously.

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For when we are being vulnerable, we allow others to be vulnerable as well.

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And someone else's vulnerability allows us to be vulnerable too.

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So vulnerability is not some trick to get someone to feel what you want them to feel.

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It is a sacred practice that ties our humanity to others.

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How can you be more vulnerable in your own life?

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Do you know what it feels like to truly be vulnerable with another person?

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~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant

Host of The Conscious Consultant Hour