#5: The Importance of Vulnerability
To Live is to be vulnerable, and that's what makes us strongVulnerability is a difficult subject to talk about for many people, in-part due to how we’ve been conditioned to see most forms of vulnerability - including the term vulnerable itself - as something shameful or weak.
When people think about vulnerability they often think of expressing our emotions, confessions of love, or even experiencing a tragedy.
Vulnerability isn’t just about emotions though.
The truth is, vulnerability is a far more broad concept than this. We experience vulnerability when we’re in times of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure; in other words, we can experience vulnerability whenever we leave our comfort zone, willingly or reluctantly (Brown, p. 13).
Vulnerability is an emotion that shows up in multiple areas of our lives:
Coming up against things that we find difficult and frustrating
Expressing admiration or respect for a person
Sharing anecdotal stories (both positive and negative!)
Expressing our true feelings, expectations, regrets, and/or concerns
Experiencing something for the first time
Failing and then standing up to try again
Seperating from our loved ones
Waiting for news, updates, or feedback
Sharing our opinions (especially when we think others are going to disagree!)
Asking for help when we need it
Asking for something we just want
Or even asking important questions
Vulnerability can look different in everyone’s lives, and it’s affected by anything ranging between people’s day-to-day circumstances, their neurological baseline, an individual’s experiences with trauma, and more.
Regardless of our individual circumstances, vulnerability tends to elicit feelings of discomfort and fear, especially when things move faster and/or sooner than we’re comfortable with (Brown, p. 14 & Brooks, p. 47).
It’s important to recognize that true vulnerability isn’t transactional.
An excerpt from one of the books I’m reading says it beautifully: “Vulnerability does not mean oversharing aspects of your life or being painfully blunt or harsh. Nor is it a means to an end; vulnerability shouldn’t be used to guilt, control, or manipulate others.” (Granneman & Sólo, p. 136)
Much like genuine curiosity, the goal of vulnerability isn’t about getting something in return or pushing others to share more; instead, I’ve learned that it’s about developing an authentic and genuine connection where people can be themselves and grow.
Growth requires us to be vulnerable, both with others and ourselves, and to be vulnerable, we must be courageous in the eyes of being emotionally exposed.
The Gile Photography website was the ultimate form of artistic vulnerability for me. From the moment I considered developing this website, I felt a sweeping set of familiar gut-wrenching nerves from my long-time friend: Anxiety.
Anxiety was knocking on my heart and mind because calling myself a photographer - much less an artist - has always felt wholly undeserving! Those titles - those identities - were glorified, romanticized through expectations of what they’re meant to look like in both skills, fame, and lifestyle.
It truly takes an obscene amount of inner willpower and strength for me to look at my skill-set and my practices and genuinely admit with utmost honesty that “I am a photographer,” “I am a writer,” and “I am an artist.”
I’ve known for a while the range of which my photography has existed throughout my life, but I never truly realized how many stories and thoughts I’ve recorded alongside these moments of awe and wonder.
For the past decade (plus), my younger self had been writing down notes of inspiration and tales from my adventures. So why couldn’t I comfortably call myself a writer?
For the past decade (plus), I’ve honed my photography skills and genuinely feel immense pride in my snapshots. So why couldn’t I realistically call myself a photographer?
It suddenly hit me back in November 2023 - while I technically had my Instagram, I didn’t truly have any platform to showcase the true extent of my work with real, utmost confidence.
After coming to this realization, I made a pledge to myself and started this website; I created this digital space as a way of creating a platform to share my work and chronicles on my terms, in a way that I felt comfortable doing.
“Here I’ve started my little garden of light, where I’m planting seeds of joy, curiosity, positivity, love, and hope, to share my ongoing development to improve and my exploration of new ideas in a constantly changing world overflowing with dreary negativity.” -Our Purpose
I’m willingly letting myself be vulnerable by expressing myself here because I want to open up a safe space for growth, development, connection, and healing for anyone who needs it.
In a world as tense as this one, we all could use a fresh breath of positivity from time to time, as well as a safe space to be vulnerable and explore our abstract thoughts.
Someday in the future, this website will either evolve or die off. Either way, today it’s thriving.
So in the spirit of what this post has been exploring, I’d like to end by sharing a thought I had that helped me embrace my own artistic vulnerability: Being vulnerable is how I know I’m truly living.
In celebration of the fifth blog post: Thank you once again for joining me on my journey~!
Titled “Candlelight” (2019), this photograph has become a deeply inspiring piece that I still find creative energy in to this day. ♥
Citations:
Granneman, J., & Sólo A. (2023). Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World. (1st Ed.). Harmony Books, Penguin Random House LLC. P. 135-137.
Brooks, D. (2023). How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. (1st Ed.) Random House, Penguin Random House LLC. P. 47
Brown, B. (2021). Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaning Connection and the Language of Human Experience. (1st Ed.) Random House, Penguin Random House LLC. P. 13-15.
Artist’s Note: I’ve been trained to cite my sources in this fashion, and for the sake of efficiency I plan to continue this method to provide my references. If it works, it works.