Socially Naked

Naked, exposed, and defenseless. This is something that hardly anyone has ever been comfortable with. To expose your true self to someone else, pure horror. Like a living nightmare we have struggled to allow people to see who we truly are. On some level, everyone at some point in their life struggles with this. It means we admit to a certain kind of vulnerability.

When you are utterly naked in the sense of self you open every part of yourself to the world. There are corners of everyone’s minds that we wish didn’t exist, parts of ourselves that we wish we could change. Things like the anxiety you feel when you could potentially be late. One single minute past is like someone twisting a knife deeper into your chest. Things like feeling useless to the people you love, feeling incapable of being the person you wish to be for them. It consumes you.

As a society we have been conditioned to judge books by their covers and someone’s mind by their appearance. We can be called a superficial species. This superficial nature is part of the downfall and one of the causes of being afraid to expose yourself. We are guilty of it, looking at someone and making snap judgements of who that person is. Glasses and a book at the bar. They must be a smart nerd. A tank top, tattoos, and a whiskey. They must have a sorted past with bad decisions knocking on their door. The reality could be the exact opposite but most of the time we will never know.

Social anxiety keeps us safe but also makes for a lonely life. In exceedingly rare moments inhibitions are lowered and shots are taken in the dark. Giving your phone number to the good looking stranger next you at the bar would normally cause you to shrink into yourself. Those shots in the dark are the chances we have to finally break the cycle of constant fear. We must learn to embrace those shots and accept that the fear is real but that we can’t let it consume us.

To be socially naked, what exactly does that mean? There’s no one definition. To be socially naked is something that we each define and place a value to. One might say that being socially naked is much more terrifying than being psychically naked with someone. A simple fix to being exposed psychically is just turning off the lights. To be socially naked means you can’t hide your scars. It means that you’re potentially letting someone in to explore the dark recesses of your mind. Our minds are our defense against all the world’s nastiest things. Exposing the one weakness we might have could potentially cause the walls to come caving in. It’s this fear that often controls us. It decides, whether we like it or not, every step we make.

How can we overcome this fear? If it was as simple as a wish, then it certainly wouldn’t exist. Self-acceptance would be a good place to start. To truly accept yourself you have to embrace who you are unconditionally and without expectations. Every moment we find ourselves in is a chance to either practice self-acceptance or is a moment in which we judge ourselves. Embrace you and the fear of being socially naked seems less important in the grand scheme of life. In self-acceptance we realize that ourself-worth isn’t something that those in our social circles assigns to us. This confidence boost removes the walls that we have placed in front of ourselves. Who wouldn’t want to scale that wall and find all the opportunities that have been hidden?