The level of growth, depth, and excellence we experience in our relationships, career, academic, and artistic pursuits can be found in how willing we are to be vulnerable.  Vulnerability may come in many forms.  It may be found in the moment we choose to fully trust, sharing our innermost feelings, which may be difficult for oneself or another to encounter.  It may be the risk of respectful candor and honest inquiry into an experience with someone that is in a position of power over us.  It could unfold as someone critiquing something we have created, or it may be as simple as trying to learn a new language, musical instrument, or sport and being embarrassed by the lack of facility with our new pursuit.  

When we move into our vulnerability, we experience the virtue of courage.  Courage leads us to other virtues.  For example, if we love well (ourselves or another), we must open to trust.  Love and trust can foster deeper compassion and forgiveness.  Thus, even the most difficult situations can be viewed more holistically.  Wellness-from a holistic perspective- translates to living a human life (a life with some challenges, and even pain at times), and having the understanding that these are moments in time, which when accompanied with courage, add to our depth, growth and commitment to a life well lived.  

​"Friendship and intimate affection are not the result of information, right, information about another person even though knowledge might further their formation. But it does so only as it becomes an integral part of sympathy through the imagination. It's when the desires and aims, the interests, and modes of response of another become an expansion of our own being that we understand her. We learn to see with her eyes, hear with her ears, and the results give true instruction for they're built into our own structure."  John Dewey, Art and Civilization

​I find this very beautiful and meaningful in that art-among other encounters in life-can open us up to a whole new world when we are intimate with it.  When we take in an experience with the suspension  of self, and the subjugation of mind, we are enriched through new knowledge of self and world.