I asked ChatGPT for a definition of vulnerability & it gave me this:

Vulnerability is the courage to be open and authentic, sharing feelings or struggles despite the risk of discomfort or rejection. It fosters trust, connection, and personal growth.

Why am I bringing up this? Well it’s sort of related to the feedback we got today.

In one of my scenes today, though the details are a bit hazy, we used “dancing” as our suggestion. My partner and I began with some dance moves to start off. Somehow, the scene shifted to her complaining about the mirror being off. After telling her I was her instructor, I tried to adjust the mirror to her liking, but she wasn’t happy with how I was doing it. By the end—if I’m remembering correctly—she mentioned something about me being her mirror, and we ended up mimicking each other’s dance moves.

Overall it was good but could have improved in couple of ways:

• Using instructor-student relationship was bit of a cop out. A much stronger relationship / offer would have been better. A jealous dance rival, perhaps?
• I could have established an emotional connection with the mirror itself, which could have opened up more possibilities.

I have realised is that I often take an easy road when it comes to emotions. I can emote just fine starting something but it’s the reacting part I suck at - and that’s exactly where vulnerability comes in.

I have known my issues with vulnerability for some time. Maybe it’s rooted in experiencing so many life-changing events that, at some point, I subconsciously decided to close off certain parts of myself.

Beyond this personal realization, one piece of feedback we all received was the importance of properly setting the context in our scenes—something I need to stay mindful of moving forward.

Overall, today’s class was still very fun & once again, I got to learn something about myself today (& need to talk to my therapist about!).