JWL.Freakwitch.net

Authenticity and Vulnerability

I've been having the most amazing ongoing conversation with a very close friend about the connection between personal/existential authenticity, and emotional vulnerability. First, let me explain what I'm talking about.

Authenticity refers to the notion of being true to yourself, to your feelings, and your desires to be a whole person. Authenticity is not only something to be cultivated in a person, but it is also something that is elusive. It's an ideal, something that one can strive for, but never perfectly achieve.

Emotional vulnerability is the way in which one can experience negative emotional fallout from unpleasant confrontations. It is especially important for those who show a high degree of empathy; an empath will inherently be much more vulnerable to the emotional energy of others.

So my friend and I are both empaths. We talk about how to deal with it a lot. It occured to me that as we strive for authenticity, we become less vulnerable to negative emotional fallout. This idea is basically an extension of the Socratic notion that "nothing can harm a good person." A corollary to this idea is that it is better to be authentic, and to speak one's truth, and deal with the emotional fallout of authenticity than to be inauthentic and deal with the energy blockages that result. Interesting thesis. I'm not 100% sure I believe it, but so far it seems correct to me.

I feel like I have much, much more to say about this, but right now I'm at work. I've been interrupted (assuming actually doing my job can be considered interruption... heh) literally a dozen times as I've tried to type this, so I'll save more for later. Interesting thoughts to chew on, nonetheless...

posted by JWL at 3:20 PM |