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Vulnerability is often perceived as a weakness, but in this episode, Steven Webb reframes it as a powerful aspect of our humanity that can be embraced with courage and wisdom. He shares his personal experiences, illustrating how vulnerability is an inherent part of life, from our dependence on others from birth to the challenges we face as we age. By acknowledging our vulnerabilities, we can open ourselves to growth and connection rather than fear and isolation. Steven emphasizes the importance of recognizing the various voices within us—such as fear, courage, and wisdom—that accompany our feelings of vulnerability. Ultimately, he encourages listeners to lean into their vulnerabilities, understanding that they can coexist with strength and bravery, leading to deeper personal insights and relationships.

Stephen Webb delves into the often misunderstood concept of vulnerability, arguing that it is not only a universal trait but also a vital aspect of human connection and personal growth. He begins by emphasizing that everyone experiences vulnerability, whether it be through reliance on others in infancy or facing health challenges later in life. Through his personal experiences with paralysis and the ongoing need for assistance, Stephen illustrates the depth of vulnerability and how it can foster a sense of empathy and community. He invites listeners to reflect on their own vulnerabilities, framing them as opportunities for connection rather than obstacles to overcome.

A significant theme in Stephen's discussion is the dual nature of vulnerability—the state of being vulnerable and the feelings associated with it. He highlights that while we may find ourselves in vulnerable positions, we do not always have to feel vulnerable. By identifying and amplifying the voices of courage and wisdom within us, we can navigate our fears and embrace our vulnerabilities with grace. Stephen's insights prompt listeners to consider what emotional voices they allow to dominate during moments of vulnerability and how shifting this perspective can lead to empowerment and resilience.

Ultimately, Stephen encourages his audience to lean into their vulnerabilities, viewing them as pathways to deeper relationships and personal transformation. He concludes with a call to action, urging listeners to embrace their vulnerabilities as a part of their journey rather than something to shy away from. This episode serves as a poignant reminder that vulnerability is not a weakness, but rather a strength that can lead to profound growth and connection with others.

Takeaways:

• Vulnerability is an inherent part of being human, and we all experience it.
• Asking for help is one of the most courageous acts of vulnerability one can demonstrate.
• Vulnerability can be embraced as a positive trait, leading to personal growth and connection.
• Recognizing the different voices within us helps us navigate feelings of vulnerability effectively.
• When feeling vulnerable, we should also acknowledge voices of courage and wisdom that empower us.
• Embracing vulnerability allows for deeper relationships and a more authentic life experience.

I want to talk about vulnerability.

And more importantly, how vulnerability is often seen as something that can be exploited.

But I want to look at it as something that, when we mix it with the other voices that we

have, different emotions and different thoughts.

I want to, by the end of this podcast, I want to try to

open your thoughts to that. We are all vulnerable. Nobody is not vulnerable. Even still

now, even right now in your position, you are a vulnerable person. Instead of just looking at a certain group

that are vulnerable. And I want to try to embrace it as a positive, as something that we can

lean into and enjoy with courage and wisdom. So I'm Steven Webb. This is Stillness in the storm podcast a

podcast that I talk about things that I've experienced in life that hopefully helps you to get through the most

difficult things in life. And just before we go, just before we start, this podcast doesn't have any adverts because

of kind people like you that donate a coffee every now and again. And I always feel vulnerable whenever I

say that, because I don't like asking.

But I watched a wonderful video earlier today about vulnerability. And and that's one of the most vulnerable things you

can do is ask for help.

And I'm asking for your help. So if you can donate a coffee, if you can leave a review, that's

brilliant. You are awesome. But thank you for just being here. And because of you guys, there's no adverts

and we can get on with the um it's gonna say meditation. That's my other podcast, Inner Peace Meditations. This

one's Stillness in the Storms. Yeah. Anyway, let's go on with it. I'm just talking now. So vulnerability.

Look, we're all vulnerable. And the first thing I want to convince you of in some small way, that you're

vulnerable too when you were born, just the same as I was born and everybody else, we're vulnerable. We're relying

on others for every aspect of our life, from warmth to feed to comfort, everything. We would not be here

today if it wasn't for somebody else. Now,

in that we might think well, wait a minute, you know, I didn't have such a great childhood. My mum

or dad weren't great to me and all that. Well, whichever way we look at it, someone fed you, someone

clothed you, someone helped you in the first few months. Later on, they might not have treated you so well,

and it may not have been perfect, but whichever way, someone must have done it, we were vulnerable.

We were reliant on others. And I think it doesn't that The what we're vulnerable for

Changes, we grow older. So take me and I. This is the second time I recorded this podcast, and the

first time, when I was editing it through, I thought I just wasn't being honest. I was talking about everybody

else's vulnerability and and I just wasn't tapping into where I'm vulnerable. And I want

to share. I'm paralysed. Paralysed just below my chest. My hands are paralysed. I'm vulnerable in so many

aspects. Like, I need to be dressed in the morning. I need to be showered. You know, so much of

my life, I am vulnerable. I suffer from autonomic dysreflexia, which is the condition that anything happens below my level

of injury and my blood pressure can go sky high, like 250 over 150. And yes, it can

really go that high. And you're only sometimes 10-15 minutes away from, like, a stroke or even worse. And

it can happen, and it does happen quite regularly. You know, I was going through a belt last year before

I had a major operation where I was going dysreflexic several times a month, sometimes six or seven times a

day. It was really bad. Now we've limited it down to only, you know, two or three times every couple

of months. So it's a lot better now. But I'm vulnerable. I need people to help me in those situations.

And anybody with spinal injuries above a certain level suffers from the same condition.

You can look it up online. Autonomic dysreflexia. But don't do it till we finish this podcast. But that's one

of the ways I'm vulnerable.

How else am I vulnerable? You know, in the council, when I'm talking publicly? you know, I'm putting it out

there. And if anything goes wrong, I'm open to judgement.

You know, we all judge each other. We all do it. You know, I know it's a nice spiritual thinking

that we don't judge. I don't judge anymore. Bollocks. Bullshit. We have to judge to some degree. We're going down

the street. We have to judge whether that person's gonna do something bad to us or not. We have to

judge whether or not to allow someone to babysit our child. We have to judge someone to whether or not

they're going to be listen to us. If we go to doctors we have to judge. Judging is not necessarily

unhealthy. Unhealthy judging is when we put ourselves better than them and we're not looking at it as to what

we can get out of it. And when I say get out of it. You know, if I'm going to

the doctor, I'm judging the doctor based on, is he a real doctor um Do I know him? Has he

got a good reputation, is he part of a surgery, all those things. So, yeah, I'm going there to get

something out. I want his skills, I need to be diagnosed. So that's what I'm talking about when it comes

down to judgement. So we all judge. We're all putting ourselves out. When it comes to when we put ourselves

out in public, when we put ourselves on Facebook, when we put a picture up or anything like that, we're

vulnerable. That's why we take, and I got friends and one of my carers it'll take like 500 selfies

yeah different angles, just trying to get it right because we're vulnerable we put ourselves out there and it's terrifying

sometimes. And there's so many things that we're vulnerable for. And if you get the joy of getting

old, you'll become more vulnerable then when you need people to look after you and things like that. So vulnerability

is inevitable. It's not something you can avoid. It's not something that you can just suddenly go, oh, I'm strong,

I'm not vulnerable, I'm not. There's no way I'm going to, Well, you know, something might happen to you in

your life.

You might end up with an illness and all that that makes you vulnerable.

Just because, you know,

you might feel a bit masculine and strong and strength-wise and all that, it doesn't mean to say you're not

vulnerable in other ways. When we lean into a relationship and when we say I love you to somebody, that's

a massive vulnerability.

You know, when you ask for help, that's a massive vulnerability. And

there's many things that we can't do. Everything

when we get in the car and drive down the road, we're vulnerable. Everybody else driving those cars and things.

I've just spent the best part of a month in September going around Cornwall in my electric wheelchair raising money

for the Cornwall Ambulance. Boy, did I feel vulnerable on those roads. So

if

you think about in your life, when do you feel vulnerable

lots

and all the times you have been all the times you will be in the future, but

we can lean in with a bit of courage. And vulnerability is just one voice when we're feeling vulnerable.

So moving from the actual being vulnerable to the feeling of vulnerability. And there is a difference. It

may sound nuanced at first, but it's not quite a massive Difference. You

know, I might be vulnerable when it comes to people getting me out of bed or when it comes to

my care, but

do I always feel vulnerable? No.

Depends on the situation, depends on who it is, depends on how comfortable I really feel But also it depends

on what voice is along with. And this is the point I want to get onto in this podcast. What

voices are you bringing along with your vulnerability?

Now, that's the good question.

So when I'm feeling vulnerable, I've also. Normally I've got a fear voice, but I haven't very often got the

voice of courage and the voice of wisdom, and it's which voice we allow to win. I've done a podcast

on this about two years ago, the 10 000 news in Buddhism or something like that it's called And you

know, we have literally all these voices within us. If someone asks us how we feel, we normally answer from

one voice. But if we park that voice aside, what other voice is there?

So if you think back to the last time you were feeling really vulnerable, when

was the last time I felt really, really vulnerable um but

first morning, getting out of bed and things like that apart from the everyday things. I think the last time

I was feeling vulnerable, I'd done a video on my true City Councillor page, not the true City Councillor page,

on my councillor page

and I was announcing that I'm standing for Cornwall Council. I

felt really vulnerable, but also I felt the wisdom, the courage voices there as well, and I felt the fear.

What if people judge me on it? What if people put comments, they don't want me to do it, And

I was asking for help because I'm asking people to deliver relief this because I can't deliver relief this that

terrifies me. Asking for help because I'm putting myself there for people to go, no, what if nobody steps forward?

What if nobody helps me? How am I going to feel? So when we but when we bring it forward

and go, do you know I'm asking from a place of vulnerability, that's okay. I'm asking from a place of

courage and braveness, I'm asking from a place of wisdom, then we can

start to see vulnerability as a real strength

it's It's just a single voice and all those other things that go with it, you know, personal growth, that's

really vulnerable. You know, moving forward on the spiritual path, that's painful, that hurts.

You know you're vulnerable when you look up and go, do you know what? Teach me something new. Tell me

something I don't know. When you put a question out there and go, help Me, you know, help me learn.

It's vulnerable because you're putting up your beliefs and your opinions up for scrutiny and up for to be challenged.

It's not nice. It doesn't feel nice. Starts to feel nice over time because you learn more and you open

your vision, you open your horizon, you see more so you're halfway up a mountain and you're having an arguing

with someone and you're saying, no, look, all I can see is those trees and a hut over there. And

someone slightly up the mountains going yeah, but beyond that hut, there's like a nice lake. And you go, no,

there isn't no lake. I'm telling you now, I'm right. And the other questions going well, I can see a

lake. And it's that vulnerability and that courage to go, okay, let me go to where you are and let

me have a look. And then you look at it go wow, you're right. And then you get to see

a lake. Like I'm using that as a metaphor. But this is what vulnerability is really about. Leaning in and

being vulnerable.

And I think the word itself has so many connotations. You know, if I said vulnerability to one person, they

go, you don't want to be vulnerable. Someone will take advantage of that. Someone likes the vulnerability and people and

they will literally take advantage and they will beat that person down and they will do all these things to

that person because they see them as a vulnerable individual. And in covid19 you know, very much um the

vulnerable people got the jabs first. And the vulnerable people had to wear a mask and things like that. And

you have the strong non-vulnerable people You know, I don't need to wear a mask. I don't need to this.

I'm the cut to myself I'm strong. And all that it's so complex. It's

so complex. And I'm not doing that on a judgement point of view. It's where we come from, you

know. And I I think that's my thoughts this week on leaning into vulnerability with wisdom

and courage and what other voices can you bring to it? And I think that's what's really, really important is

which voices can you bring along to the vulnerability? Which voices can you bring along with the fear? It's no

good just bringing along the fear voice and going, hey, I'm frightened so what other voice is there, okay, let

me park the voice of fear aside. Well, there's an opportunity to be courageous. There's

an opportunity to be brave. There's an opportunity um what Why am I fearful? And you can you can go

through that dialogue and you'll find out that fear is just one of the complex myriad of different emotions we

have at any given time. You

know, the average person can only name five or six emotions. And if you asked me several years ago um

name Name 30 emotions, I wouldn't have I'd plew I'd stop about six Happy sad, angry, vulnerable,

courageous, wise um brave You know, I'm struggling beyond seven or eight now, but there's

so many more. Myriad of different subtle voices all within those, you know, grief

and, you know, joy. Feeling,

enlightened desires. That's a feeling calm, feeling at peace, feeling at

an equilibrium where you're just equal with the world around you. I think that's what I read for Let me

know in the comments or reviews or anything if it's not. But yeah, there's a myriad of all these different

voices and complexities that I think when we look at a single entity of an emotion or a

state of vulnerability, we don't do it justice. So embrace your vulnerability

and bring it along with the courage and wisdom voice at the same time um I don't know if this

helps um but that's my podcast this week. This is Stillness in the Storms. I'm Steven Webb and You can

also tune over to my other podcast, Inner Peace Meditations, where I share all my meditations for free on

the podcast. And I'm going to be very vulnerable now and say, look, I don't have adverts and that's why

you have the opportunity to donate a coffee, which helps keep these online, and it stops you having to

listen to four minutes every 10 minutes breaking out of the podcast. So thank you, thank you for the reviews

and, yeah, I love you. Take care. Have an amazing day.

Bye.