Being vulnerable is a risk that we take to experience connection with someone. Leaning into love can feel like a battle that we won’t be able to win. Especially right now. It’s like we went into battle with no armor. There have been unnecessary violence and discrimination that goes deep into parts that we may not be able to comprehend nor understand. These experiences have wounded us. We therefore will triple the amount of armor that we extend to the next person to feel protected. Remember too much body armor makes it difficult to move freely, you are bound by that armor. You will walk around guarded, stiff, and overprotected.
We try to prevent people from hurting us, in turn, we isolate ourselves. We continue to walk around armored, believing it’s keeping us safe from harm and pain. When we close ourselves off, we fail to realize that even if we leave the armor on, we may still lose the battle anyway. When other people hurt us and those around us, it’s easy to close ourselves off from connecting with people and we use this pain and hatred to project our emotions. This steel armor isn’t helping no one. It’s not making a positive change in our world. Humans naturally will try and defend themselves after being hurt and tend to numb themselves and go into protection mode. So rather than trying to heal, many people close themselves off, blame people for being cruel, and crawl into their own cocoon. They convince themselves this is the only way to live because their past experiences have taught them it’s too dangerous to love and be vulnerable to another person.
Will you allow other people’s actions steer you into the direction of hate? Have you lost love for others because of how painful humans can hurt others? Will you cover this pain with love instead? I can’t promise you it will be easy. But I can promise you a life of peace if you can cover all the hurt and pain with love. I encourage you to look for ways to love others. Smile at someone when they walk past you or nod your head to them if you’re wearing a mask. Humans have the ultimate need and desire for love and connection.