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Jan. 27, 2026 Post

Reflecting on Vulnerability

With Mary V. Gelinas, EdD

Are you aware of how often you unconsciously shape your experience? What might be different if you shaped your experience consciously? And what does vulnerability have to do with either of these questions?

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This past year I have occasionally felt overwhelmed by fear, outrage, grief, or numbness even with only sneak peeks at the news. Whatever issues you care about—the climate crisis, the horrific situations in Minnesota, Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan (the list is long), the brutal treatment and illegal incarnation of people of color, the multiple insults spewed at female journalists, the increasingly huge wealth gap between the 1% and the rest of us. . .—all of these can trigger emotional reactions outside of conscious awareness shaping our experience of ourselves and how we interact with one another. 

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During a recent conversation with wise friends*, I realized that under the layer of these difficult emotions, is a deeper layer of a sense of vulnerability. I feel deeply hurt that all the things that I care about and have spent my professional career working to create—compassion, constructive interactions, and collaboration across differences—are being threatened, even destroyed. 

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Vulnerability comes from the late Latin vulnerabilis and vulnerare to wound or to be capable of being easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally. 

Opening myself to simply be with this vulnerability and not overlay it with other emotions has allowed me to feel a spaciousness inside. My body, heart, and mind are calmer and clearer. From here I can consciously and more accurately perceive and shape the energy and information within me. This is the personal field. (You can find guidance on how to move through the layers to vulnerability and to infinite spaciousness, in the Appendix in the book Space Is Not Empty or visit  www.spaceisnotempty.net and check Cultivating Field Awareness/Practices.)

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This, in turn, allows me to consciously perceive and contribute to shaping a more salubrious and compassionate social or relational field in which I am interacting with others.

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 I can choose to listen more deeply and try to understand others, particularly those whose points of view set my hair on fire (i.e., trigger reactivity). I can notice whether the impact I am having on others and the situation in which we find ourselves is life-giving or taking. I can lead and influence others with kindness and dignity. I can choose to create more generative experiences for myself and everyone around me.

How might expanding your awareness of the personal and social fields help you consciously make such choices? 

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This is why @Alan Briskin and I wrote Space Is Not Empty: How Hidden Fields Are Shaping Your Life and Our World. We hope our book will enable you to shape your inner experience and to contribute to creating less toxic and life-giving social fields around you. We invite you to follow us at www.spaceisnotempty.net; Linked In; Facebook; and BlueSky.