Shields Up! What Star Trek Teaches Us About Vulnerability

Here’s a bit of trivia and a question for the Star Trek fans out there: the starship Enterprise - the prized flagship of the United Federation of Planets - traveled through space with its shields at a feeble five percent power. Now, isn’t that a risky and unnecessarily dangerous decision, to be exposed to any number of unfathomable dangers in space, the Final Frontier?

Thanks to Google, Reddit, and the Star Trek TNG Technical Manual (yes, that exists), I found the answer. Running the shields at or near full strength all the time would be a tremendous and unsustainable drain on the power of the ship. Also, the shields would block all of the onboard sensors which collect important “scientific and tactical data” (page 138).

And so the decision was made to travel largely unprotected through the stars, sacrificing security for the sake of longevity and the opportunity to learn new things.

Do you see where I’m going here?

So many of us walk around with our shields up, heavily defended against the world. We are less open to input from others, to learning new ways of thinking, to being present in the beauty around us. And we are shut off from receiving love, validation, and empathy.

In fact, I think we all have our shields up in one way or another. We’ve learned to defend ourselves too heavily. We are afraid of rejection or ridicule. And so we are careful. Too careful.

Another characteristic of the spaceship's shields is that they block people from entering and exiting the ship. When transporting the crew, the shields would have to be lowered, even when under attack. There is no way to send or receive effectively when our shields are up.

Our first step must be awareness - realizing and acknowledging that we have closed ourselves off from affirmation or opportunity. And then we can begin to lower our shields. Slowly, tentatively at first, like a child encountering a stranger. And then with more confidence, when we begin to enjoy the fullness of life when we live without fear.

What we are talking about here is vulnerability. We can openly tell others we love them, we can share our difficult feelings, we can let others see our unfinished work. And we can accept love, compliments, and feedback from others with openness and grace.

Of course, lowering our shields means that we will be open to being hurt. That’s part of the reality of life. But the potential payoffs are much greater than the pain. Let’s not close ourselves off from the good for fear of the bad. This is what Brené Brown calls Wholehearted living.

Let’s lower our shields, the parts that keep others out and the parts that keep our true selves in. Let’s be active participants in this world. Let’s live and enjoy life on life’s terms.

The true Final Frontier is within.