It can be uncomfortable to be vulnerable. It can feel like you’re sitting there, naked, for all the world to see. It can feel sticky and weird. It can feel like standing in your vulnerability decreases your value as a human.

But it doesn’t.

It never has, and it never will.

I hope you learn how to move past your discomfort, and see your vulnerability for the magnificence that it is. I hope you learn how to embrace it all.

Your vulnerability is beautiful. The greatest love stories are written with words of vulnerability. The greatest paintings use vulnerability in every stroke. The music of your heart uses vulnerability as a steady beat. Masterpieces have vulnerability woven within every inch of them.

Embrace the beauty.

Your vulnerability is a gift. To be able to maintain an open heart, and an open soul, knowing that there is the potential for pain, for hurt, and for loss, is nothing short of a miracle.

Embrace the gift.

Your vulnerability is a strength. To stay vulnerable in the face of what scares us, in the face of what leaves us open and raw, and to be able to come out on the other side of that still standing, and breathing and beating is a primal superpower.

Embrace the strength.

Your vulnerability is rooted in honesty. To let yourself feel deeply, and to let others see those feelings without guard or guise – that is to be fully human.

Embrace the honesty.

Your vulnerability is an asset. It lets you see the world around you more deeply. It lets you feel the world around you more deeply, too. And the world needs more people who feel. When we’re able to feel more deeply, our lives become more full. We’re experiencing all the wonder and chaos that life has to offer us, too.

To be vulnerable in a world that asks us to hide our imperfections, and strive for ideals of what we “should be”, is no easy feat. But it is worth it.

It is always worth it.