Where does your mind wander at 2 a.m. when you’re staring at the ceiling? What are you hiding from the rest of the world? What do you carry with you as you go about your day? We all have parts of our lives that we aren't proud of. We carry mistakes, brokenness, worries, anxiety—the list goes on and on. We would be lying if we told people that we were completely transparent about who we are to everyone we meet.
We are constantly fighting a battle within ourselves, trying to hide what really eats away at us. We suppress the ugly, broken pieces of who we are by pushing these struggles further and further down. We do this in the hopes that maybe they will become nonexistent; that maybe they will no longer plague our worrisome minds. We hope that building up these walls around our insecurities will block people from stealing a peek into our broken hearts.
Everyone puts on a facade trying to seem more and more "perfect" to the outside world. All of us want to seem like we have it all together, that we are invincible, that we can do it all. We use social media as a tool that we hope causes the world to perceive us as beautiful, intelligent, charitable, Godly, successful, and even wealthy. We hide the truth about our struggles in an attempt to achieve this unattainable version of who we want to be. We desperately aim to convince the people around us that we are better than fine; we want to seem as though we are great, all the time.
When we deny to the people we meet that we, too, have parts of our stories that we aren’t proud of, we open up lines of communication to build genuine relationships. Many times, I have felt as though I am completely alone in the challenges that I am facing. I convince myself that even if I explain my brokenness to someone, they truly will never be able to understand exactly how I feel. However, I have been proven wrong time and time again. Often, I have found that there are more people than I could have ever imagined who face the same darkness that I do. It is beautiful to finally feel as though someone understands your hurt.
“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” –Brené Brown
When you show others your bare heart, you will experience a kind of liberation that you never knew existed. Be vulnerable. Embrace it. Dive into real conversations. Don’t settle for being a prisoner to your own brokenness. I promise that every single one of us has our own set of things that we carry with us every single day. Let’s carry our burdens together.
