I was recently reminded of the importance of true and deep connection. Not the kind of connection where you ask someone how they are and they quickly answer “good, you?” I’m talking about the kind where you ask someone how they are and you look each other in the eyes and wait for a meaningful response. I used to have the mentality that I didn’t need anyone. I was the classic case of “I can do it myself”. When I was 18 I moved to Europe for university, not caring that my friends and family were no closer than an international flight away. I just wanted my freedom. It’s been a slow, long journey but I have come to realize that making significant connections is a fundamental need and that having freedom is far less fulfilling without sincere relationships to go along with it. I could travel the word ten times over searching, but unless I was willing to be vulnerable with myself, true connections were not going to find me. Brené Brown says:

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of connection and the path to the feeling of worthiness.”

Our ability to be vulnerable and thus connect with ourselves is directly related to our ability to be vulnerable and connect with others. All of those years, the connection I was missing was the one with myself. The depth of the well we dig within us is the same depth we dig with others. Can you feel that? How deep does the connection with yourself run?

When’s the last time you…

• Sat down and wrote in your journal about how you feel and what you need?
• Looked at yourself in the eyes (not at your shirt or your hips but in. your. eyes.) and said ‘I see you’ + ‘I love you’?
• Heard your intuition speak to you, and acted on it?
• Sat in meditation and asked your spirit to speak to you?

Sit in a comfortable seat for a moment and close your eyes. Start to breathe deep and become aware of any sensations in your body. What do you feel? Where do you feel it? How would you breath if you let yourself soften and become a little bit more open? Can you pin point where you feel a sense of deep connection within you? How deep does it run? Can you open and soften and allow it to grow a little bit deeper?

We must be brave enough to meet ourselves as we are. In doing so, our vulnerability creates an environment open for true connection and that my friends, is where the magic truly, deeply happens.