armor

if the culture of your life requires armor because of issues stemming from shame, fear, or abandonment, you can't expect to feel wholehearted in your convictions or engaged in the people, or things, that surround you. 

by self-protecting and reinforcing armoring behaviors—such as blame, cynicism, perfectionism or emotional stoicism—you'll never have the capacity to experience the best parts of life. you can't evolve underneath armor. it cages you in, it's heavy, and it takes much, if not all, of your energy to carry around. 

while armor might've protected you when you were younger, you now feel the weight of it, dragging on you and preventing you from growing into the gifts that you have. and this isn't a benign proposition; it metastasizes into grief and depression, and anger.

taking off what you believe is protecting you and exposing yourself to be vulnerable, is one of the hardest things you'll do in your life, but it will teach you to be courageous. 

only then will you live a life worth living.