I had an idea to select a topic, or prompt, each week, and write about it - whether it be a story relating to the term, or an opinion on it. Then, I wanted to have a few people, close to me, do the same. The idea is that sharing a few thoughts about a similar subject, from people with completely different backgrounds, careers, ages, and ideals could create a bit of perspective.

We are living in a world, and time, full of division. Contrary to a world we lived in only a year ago, full of diversity. The two can often be confused, but they could not be more different. My hope, with any conflict in the world, is that we can all sit down, talk through it, and perhaps leave with a little bit of perspective. So, this personal project is my contribution to that goal.

Stephanie Shami, 27
Born in California
Egyptian

This year I started my Egypsy Etsy store and began designing printed goods, as well as importing some items from Egypt because - well, all of those things make up who I am, and I wanted to find a way to share them with the world.

It's a very scary thing, to put your work out into the universe, not only something that you have created but something that you love. It's so personal, and you're essentially saying, "HEY I made this, and I think it's so important that I wanted you to see it."

I recently got out of a relationship that no longer served me, or my partner. Though we loved each other very much, we realized that our goals were different, and our ideas about how to reach said goals, were even more different. It seemed earth-shattering at the time. How was I going to continue on without this person who had been there, by my side, every day for almost 5 years? Who was I without them? It took me a few weeks, and a few cries to realize that every step away from that relationship was a step closer to myself.

I was finally able to put myself first, to spend the time and energy looking internally to find what I really wanted. When I finally found it, it wasn't at all what I expected, but it made SO much sense. I'm a designer. I've always had a strange and unexplainable obsession with letters. I love to learn and I want to createsomething that brings the beauty of Egypt to the forefront, instead of all the terrible news that fills our feeds every day. Think Stephanie, think.

I know! I'll learn to letter so that I can create designs that showcase the beauty of the world we travel. I mean, major breakthrough here people, am I right?

Although I am still sad that my relationship did not end with eternal bliss as I hoped it would, I realized that I wasn't in a space where it was acceptable to be 100% vulnerable. I need the freedom to be unapologetically myself, to explore my creativity, my mind, and my spirit in order to really tap into the potential I know that I'm capable of. I am thankful, that the end of one relationship gave me permission to really focus on the relationship with myself.

I am learning every day. Not only a new creative skill or fumbling through how to start and run a small business, but also learning about myself. I am flawed; rough around the edges, hard to get along with sometimes, and god knows - more stubborn than my father. But, I care. Friends often turn into family, and people know that although my expectations are high, it's because I wouldn't think twice before doing the same for them. I want to put that same energy, drive, and commitment into my business. That vulnerability, that permission to be exactly who you are, is something only you can give yourself. And sometimes, you have to make space in order to do so.

blog: egypsy.co/posts
instagram: instagram.com/egypsy_

Nina Polo Wieja, 33
Born in Nicaragua
German-Panamanian

When I think of this word the first thing that comes to mind is Brené Brown’s TED Talk on the Power of Vulnerability. I remember clearly, being in an unfulfilling marriage and watching her speak for the first time, tears uncontrollably streaming down my face. Being in a relationship in which you don’t feel safe to share vulnerably can feel like the loneliest place on earth. There is no one to blame, nobody at fault. The situation was what it was. I believe we were both doing the best with the knowledge and tools we knew at the time. They weren’t enough.

I knew at this point in my life that I needed to share myself, fully. But whenever I tried, I was received with what felt to me like irritation. I want to choose my words carefully because I am well aware of the fact that my reality, my perception, might not be his, or anyone else’s for that matter, but it was very real to me. I will just say this, I didn’t feel safe sharing my emotions, I didn’t feel like they were welcome.

After ending my marriage I promised myself that I would make vulnerability a priority. I want to admit when I have no clue, when I’m sad, overwhelmed when I’m hurt, I want to be able to cry and be received with patience, kindness, and maybe even appreciation because we all know it takes courage to show your heart, to show your shadow as well as your light. I promised myself I wouldn't play the game of dating and only show the most digestible side of myself for a while until feeling comfortable enough to admit that I can be a serious person, that I am quite familiar with depression, that I know what it’s like to contemplate not being on this earth. I also know what euphoria feels like, joy and playfulness, but that’s not me all of the time.

There are people who live their lives like Golden Retrievers, just jump in the water and shake your beautiful blond locks afterward. I love those people, they are some of my favorites to be around. But I am not golden, I am one more of a mutt. We’re resilient little creatures.

My point is, it’s hard to share all of you when there is darkness and pain, anger and solitude as well as literal dancing in the rain and sparks of stardust sprinkled all over your life. It’s a constant challenge but it gets easier with practice. I now rarely pretend to be someone I’m not, but I still find myself highlighting the ‘fun’ aspects of my life and omitting the part of me that thinks this whole ‘World Thing’ is dumb.

In reality not everyone is willing or able to hear our story. When we share a difficult situation, most people’s reaction is to comment, relate, fix or give advice. Sometimes we want advice, sometimes we want to hear that someone else has had a similar experience but oftentimes all we need is someone to listen, to truly hear us, to take themselves out of the equation and let us be, even when we are hurting. So, as wonderful as it is to share ourselves, we need to be smart about who we let in. If we are repeatedly met with the above-mentioned reactions we can end up feeling lonely, even desperate.

When you tell someone you are having an existential life crisis and their reaction is: ‘ OMG, that’s amazing, do you want to talk about it? Or not talk about it? What do you want to do?’ That’s a pretty great indicator that you can trust them. Thankfully I have a few of those in my life, and I’m grateful for them every single day!
blog: ninapolo.com/blog
instagram: instagram.com/ninamaderita/

Rachael Charbonneau, 27
Niskayuna, New York
American

I believe in the power of synchronicity — and being asked about my vulnerability at this particular point and time in my life is synchronistic for me. Here’s why:

I launched my second business in February of this past year as a Health Coach, and with it has come to a brand new social media and blogging presence. Throughout this process, I’ve toyed with the idea of how much I want to share. Being a healer and in a healing profession, people want to hear about you: who you are, and how you live your life day to day to be the healthiest version of you. They want to know why they should turn to and trust you with their own health and bodies.

With sharing comes vulnerability. How much do I share? How much do I let people in? How well do I really want strangers to know me? I’m a natural active listener. This may have been due to how I was raised — in a household with an intensity of people who love to be heard. I never liked the competition of saying “look at me and listen to what I have to say! My voice matters!”, so instead, I listened. I’m the listener. I’m not the sharer. Besides a select few people, I would much rather listen to you than talk about myself.

But now I’m in a profession that has an unspoken requirement to share about yourself with the masses via social media. I’ve been torn the last few months on where that boundary is — how much to share on each subject of my life without sharing too much about myself or someone else. It’s been a legitimate internal struggle for me. The people I follow the most on social media are the ones being vulnerable and share everything about their life because I’m attracted to their vulnerability. So, it’s a no-brainer, right? Just share. But it hasn’t been that simple of a journey.

I believe in being authentic. It’s pretty fucking hard in this day and age — especially with social media. People want to showcase themselves as having this perfect life even if life is far from this and do so. Between photoshop and a caption saying how wonderful life is, people can hide behind their computer screen or phone and make their life out to be seemingly blissful. I try my hardest not to fall into this trap and post authentically. For instance, I won’t post about meditation if I haven’t been practicing myself.

I had been struggling with this idea of vulnerability on social media when all of a sudden, my life turned upside down. The few weeks before this particular day I had a small moment of sharing as I had started my physical therapy journey about facing back and hip pain I’ve been experiencing for over 10 years and the emotions it was bringing up — but between those posts were more posts about food, food videos, and yoga. All authentic but not much more of a caption that said “look at me and look at this yummy food.”

That one particular day I got a phone call saying my job was changing. A few hours later, my then boyfriend — the only man I’ve ever loved with both feet off the ground, whom every cell in my body is still so fucking in love with, left me, and a few hours after that I reached out to my roommates about a big change needing to be made because I’ve been unhappy. This was all over a 12-hour period. The amount of anxiety and panic from the loss of my boyfriend has taken a huge toll on my body and my day to day. I’m just now getting my head above water (this happened less than a month ago). It’s actually caused this shedding of all things negative in my life. I’m trying to change anything that isn’t serving me or my well-being.

That same week, I was promoting a blog post and food video I had made about Broccoli Pesto. One morning, I was writing a caption on an image of the Broccoli Pesto while I was balling my eyes out. I’m sitting there posting on Instagram “OMG Broccoli Pesto is so yummy, go to my blog and read more” as I’m mid-panic attack. Everything about it felt so fucking wrong and so inauthentic, it was actually quite sickening to me. The next morning, I broke down that barrier I had been holding up to my audience and posted about what I was going through. I shed it all, saying how depressed I had been, how I’m not a crier and how I now couldn’t stop, how my boyfriend had left me and my heart was shattered, how I’m usually so in tune with my body but couldn’t tell the difference between being hungry, sad, or panicked.

The most incredible thing happened when I broke down that wall and allowed myself to be vulnerable. Strangers were reaching out, not just to give their condolences, but to thank me for being so honest because it was helping them go through something similar. I’ve shared more and more throughout the last few weeks, and the feedback has been the same — to keep sharing because it’s helping others to heal themselves. Me sharing and reaching out for help, which is usually something I don’t do, has shifted something in me as well. I’ve realized that it’s what we really all crave and strive for: to be able to feel comfortable to truly be our authentic selves. To me, that in-between feeling of sharing is vulnerability. Seeing others do so gives us permission to save space for ourselves to do the same. With being authentic comes vulnerability — showing who you truly are, and what we have to realize is that this is generally the ultimate end goal in our human existence, to live an authentic, happy life.

blog: wholisticbelly.com/blog
instagram: instagram.com/wholisticbelly
facebook: facebook.com/wholisticbelly