Allowing our selves to be vulnerable. The paradox is, the more vulnerable we become, the less vulnerable we are. I remember trying to be more open, and getting my feelings so hurt... Just what I had always avoided.... I remember it as if it was yesterday. And thinking... f*ck this... but a crack had opened and I couldn't reseal it..
Hard to explain in the short form, just that each time I was hurt, I learned something about myself... the things I hated about myself and didn't want others to know. How scared I was of getting hurt, almost volunteering to be hurt by being vulnerable and open.
But I became wiser and a little more thick skinned, learned how not to take things personal, and if I did, how to work on it.
Don't know if this short example helps.... but that is how I started making real connections... not just surface .