Everyone has vulnerabilities, at some stage in their life.

Can we please break the stigma that to have a vulnerable period within our life is something to be ashamed of or that somehow we are less worthy?

The changing skies of each and every day are similar to our lives. Everybody's lives change through phases and everybody will experience vulnerable phases.

Today's perfectionism is too much to handle. I see social media posts of the perfect version of normal. A lovely, well kept home. A good, progressive career. Family holiday pictures of the perfect families. Even pictures of well prepared meals and well organised, clutter free rooms. Somehow it seems normal to have everything perfectly, perfect.

If we do not have these perfect aspects of life, we are somehow failing. Or at least that's how we feel on the inside. Hopefully, we are all aware that the truth behind these social media pictures is usually very different in reality.

I personally have lots of lovely photos of well behaved children lined up at the beach all eating ice cream. No one would know the tears and tantrums that were happening in the hour leading up to this event, including my own. Yet, the photo implies happiness. I can assure you that any photo I have like this holds the reality that is very much different, even before the ice-cream is even finished.

Life is forever changing. It is phases. Each part of life is a phase. We are vulnerable within stages of life.

As a baby and a small child we are incredibly vulnerable, needing adults for assistance.

In our twenties we think we have control but we are still vulnerable, making mistakes along the way to finding our perfect partner, career, friends or home.

We may just about hit our peak in our thirties or forties and have a little more control and routine however we cannot control our health, death of loved ones, parenting young children requirements or trauma caused by loss of career, debt, change in circumstances or a whole host of other life changing situations that may happen.

As we age and the older we get the more vulnerabilities that can arise. Therefore, to be peak of our game, that is in our peak of life, it is very interchangeable, effected by many external factors outside of our control. I would suggest if we are lucky enough to reach that place we may not be able to stay there for a lengthy period of time.

In a nutshell, everyone faces vulnerabilities at some point in their life. Life and stages are forever changing, just like the changing skies at the beach.

We rarely speak of these vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities in life that are tough, in fear that we may be seen as indifferent or not in control.

I rarely talk about my own life to people. In fact there have been times in which I would go as far to say I have hidden it.

We are all vulnerable at some stage in life and we need to stop placing perfectionist expectations on ourselves that we are okay all of the time. Haven't we been taught to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and continue. Isn't that what everyone around us is waiting for? We feel obliged to get back on track, get back to where we were before the vulnerable situation arose.

Sometimes in life this is not possible, sometimes things can happen, outside of our control that means life changes for a phase. This phase could be as long as five years, ten years or even longer. Even though it is a phase, it is still okay to not be okay. There is no rush to get back on track. It may be that you do not ever return to the same track as before and again this is okay.

When my life turned upside down six years ago, I wasted the first two years trying to get back on track. Everyone around me was waiting for it. I could feel peoples thoughts. They were thinking that I will get there soon enough. The pressure was intense. Truth is I never returned to that track. A phase that was expected to last a year, lasted six and I am still counting. In that time period though I found a new path and it is even better than the one I was on before.

Being vulnerable or having vulnerable periods in life doesn't always need to be viewed in a negative light by yourself or anyone around you. We are all vulnerable at times in our life. We are never peak of our game for very long. These times in our life, that become memorable milestones for good reasons or bad reasons, make up who we are.

Perfectionism doesn't exist, it never did and never will. Every single person will be or have fought a battle of some kind. I would suggest that todays perfectionism is unrealistic and unhealthy. I choose to tell my story with confidence, it makes me no less of a person and may actually help the person reading this feel a little more accepted.

Amongst the chaos of my neuro-spicy children and their needs, it became very apparent to me that my parenting experience was very different to every single one of my friends.

I became the parent who would cancel on others without explanation. I did not want to be seen as different, I did not want to have to justify myself or to explain the needs of my children so it was easier to cancel plans, regularly. All of the behaviours that ADHD mixed with Autism brought every single day, were conversations that others parents never embarked on. I easily isolated myself.

Parenting became so difficult that eventually I reached out to a support group of other parents that had similar diagnosis in their children. As I sat and listened to their stories, I felt completely normal. Suddenly it became clear that I was not the only parent that couldn't understand why traditional parenting methods did not work. All those evenings I sat and wondered what I was doing so wrong, questioning my parenting ability became clear. I was doing nothing wrong, I was just making incorrect comparisons towards other families that didn't share the same vulnerabilities. In this case ADHD and Autism. As I sat and listened to these other stories it also became clear how fortunate I am. My perspective changed. I stopped comparing to things that were incomparable.

Your journey, regardless of any situation or vulnerability is incomparable to anyone else. We are all different with very different experiences. Just like the forever changing moody skies, life changes constantly. These changes do not make us any less worthy than the perfect social media post. It could be said that to believe we are perfect and never vulnerable at any stage in life is to be naive.

Within my own most vulnerable moments in life there have periods of great self strength, determination, love, passion, empathy and flexibility. Can we please change the stigma that to be vulnerable at some point in our life is to be something that is shameful!

My own life is far from perfect. We are all amazingly imperfect xx