Feeling safe emotionally is the key to allowing our gentle nature to surface and be expressed in everyday life. Allowing the gentle, nurturing nature of ourselves to show through in everyday life is essential, both for ourselves and in our relationships.
What happened to our gentleness?
In the process of growing up and becoming an adult, we often lose touch with the concept of being gentle to ourselves. Some of us have been traumatized by emotional and/or physical abuse from our family of origin, and by insensitive or even cruel emotional interaction with friends, family, or coworkers. Exposure to an emotionally toxic environment can create long lasting negative impacts on our emotional well-being.
Can We Be Vulnerable?
One common impact of such exposure is a fear of emotional vulnerability and of being gentle to ourselves and in relationship. Emotional shutdown, reactivity, and defensiveness are common coping strategies that many of us practice to deal with these fears.
While we may believe such strategies will protect us, they actually create isolation and loneliness, which build fear and distance in relationships. Our fear of being hurt emotionally can result in an inability to trust others and a disregard for our own instincts. This ultimately impairs our personal confidence and self-esteem.
To allow ourselves to be vulnerable to others and gentle to ourselves requires emotional courage. Treating ourselves kindly and gently is a sign of love, acceptance, and respect for who we are. It is a welcoming, respecting, and embracing of our authentic, true self. This is why the ability to be gentle to ourselves and embrace our true selves daily is crucial to success in building meaningful relationships.
Where Can We See the Gentle Nature?
Most of us find it natural and easy to be gentle with babies. Babies love hearing a gentle voice and feeling gentle touch, and they thrive in response. Babies feel secure and deeply loved in an environment that is safe, both physically and emotionally. It is this kind of environment where their healthy true self can be expressed freely and organically.
Like babies, if we are to be vulnerable, feel love, and treat ourselves with patience and gentleness, feeling safe emotionally and physically is essential. How can we create such emotional and physical safety in our everyday life?
Invitation
It is a process, and the safe community of Living Harbor can help us learn to be both safe and open emotionally. We will continue to discuss this process in upcoming blogs. Meanwhile, you are welcome to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. You may choose to be part of our community when you feel ready and in the manner with which you feel most comfortable.
Before having a healthy and meaningful relationship with others, having a healthy relationship with ourselves is the first step. Let’s start our process , Restoring and Reconnecting Your Healthy True Self™. We look forward to seeing you in upcoming gatherings, either online or face-to-face or both.