Quotes About Vulnerability

Mike, my colleague, had said a while back that when we feel fragile, we're like raw eggs- we crack open and splatter if dropped. But when we develop more resilience, we're like hard-boiled eggs- we might get dinged up if dropped, but we won't crack completely and spill all over the place.

I point out to her that pain can be protective; staying in a depressed place can be a form of avoidance. Safe inside her shell of pain, she doesn't have to face anything, nor does she have to emerge into the world, where she might get hurt again.

the upside of being a therapist's child is that nothing gets shoved under the rug; the downside is that you'll be totally screwed up anyway).

There's nothing like illness to take away a sense of control

Ongeacht hoe openhartig we als samenleving zijn over zaken die we vroeger angstvallig verzwegen, het stigma op onze emotionele problemen en zielenroerselen blijft immens. ... Maar waarvoor zijn wij dan zo bang? Het is niet alsof we een kijkje nemen in die duistere krochten, het licht aandoen en een stel kakkerlakken aantreffen. Vuurvliegjes houden ook van de duisternis. Er is schoonheid op die plekken.

maybe part of being a good dad is allowing yourself the full range of human emotions, of really living, even if living fully can sometimes be harder than not.

but maybe part of being a good dad is allowing yourself the full range of human emotions, of really living, even if living fully can sometimes be harder than not.

know that therapy won't make all my problems disappear, prevent new ones from developing, or ensure that I'll always act from a place of enlightenment. Therapists don't perform personality transplants; they just help to take the sharp edges off. A patient may become less reactive or critical, more open and able to let people in. In other words, therapy is about understanding the self that you are.

Of course, anger serves another function—it pushes people away and keeps them from getting close enough to see you. I wonder if John needs people to be angry at him so that they won't see his sadness.

The only problem is, by choosing familiar partners, people guarantee the opposite result: they reopen the wounds and feel even more inadequate and unlovable.

How can there be an endpoint to love and loss? Do we even want there to be? The price of loving so deeply is feeling so deeply – but it's also a gift, the gift of being alive.

Pushing aside emotions only makes them stronger.

I once told Wendell that Mike, my colleague, had said a while back that when we feel fragile, we're like raw eggs—we crack open and splatter if dropped. But when we develop more resilience, we're like hard-boiled eggs—we might get dinged up if dropped, but we won't crack completely and spill all over the place.

They wish they could stay longer but don't know how to say this directly. Acknowledging their attachment makes them feel too vulnerable.

Maybe you can let yourself cry too.

Sitting-with-you-in-your-pain is one of the rare experiences that people get in the protected space of a therapy room,

You will inevitably hurt your partner, your parents, your children, your closest friend—and they will hurt you—because if you sign up for intimacy, getting hurt is part of the deal.

People often mistake numbness for nothingness, but numbness isn't the absence of feelings; it's a response to being overwhelmed by too many feelings. John looks from his cell back to me. "You know what I love about Rosie?" he says. "She's the only one who doesn't ask things of me. The only one who isn't, in one way or another, disappointed with me—

Why Italian? In order to develop another pair of eyes, in order to experiment with weakness

Maybe because from the creative point of view there is nothing so dangerous as security.

We must be willing to fall flat on our faces. Fearlessly putting ourselves out there is simply a required part of the process. At the very least, it results in the gift of humility and, at best, the triumph of our human spirit.

I leaned my back against an oak Thinking it was a trusty tree. But first it bent, And then it broke And let me down as my love did me. —"The Water Is Wide," traditional folk song

Yelling louder does not help me understand you any better! Don't be afraid of me. Come closer to me. Bring me your gentle spirit. Speak more slowly. Enunciate more clearly. Again! Please, try again. S-l-o-w down. Be kind to me. Be a safe place for me. See that I am a wounded animal, not a stupid animal. I am vulnerable and confused. Whatever my age, whatever my credentials, reach for me. Respect me. I am in here. Come find me.

Unfortunately, as a society, we do not teach our children that they need to tend carefully the garden of their minds . Without structure, censorship, or discipline, our thoughts run rampant on automatic. Because we have not learned how to more carefully manage what goes on inside our brains, we remain vulnerable to not only what other people think about us, but also to advertising and/or political manipulation.