vulnerability

I thought healing would mean lying. I thought allowing myself to be helped would be falsifying documents that stated I was all right or had a happy life when I did not. I thought all I had going for me was my refusal to lie about my life, and I didn't want to give that up.

When we adopt the “caretaker” role, we minimize our partner’s contributions and exaggerate our own, which creates an unbalanced dynamic that prevents intimacy from developing.

Reading in bed together, while it might not be a major milestone — like marriage or having children — truly is a significant event in a relationship.

Why can't I be vulnerable as an adult? Despite my fears of vulnerability, some part of me knew it was the key to having fulfilling intimate relationships.

Pretending you don’t have feelings doesn’t pay off.

When we have an open heart, we experience true joy, love, and intimate connection. So being afraid of vulnerability is really being afraid of intimacy. But we need both to thrive.

Last week I was sitting anywhere between nineteen and thirty-seven feet from Kevin Bacon.