Setting Boundaries

     

    Allow your boundaries to be non-negotiable. We can be so focused on keeping the peace that we sacrifice our well-being in the process. We don’t want to make waves. We don’t want other people to think we are selfish. We want people to like us or approve of us, and we say yes when we mean no. We tell ourselves that we can overcome whatever harm may come to us. We tell ourselves that it isn’t that big a deal. But it is.  Anything that we do that betrays our own well-being is a big deal. It matters tremendously.

     We have to commit to taking care of ourselves. We have to protect ourselves and know clearly where the lines lay with us.  It will not kill us if people are upset with us. We were not put on this earth to make other people happy at the cost of ourselves.  We don’t matter less than a single person on this earth.  

"We have to commit to taking care of ourselves."

     Practice recognizing where each of the lines is to be laid down and don’t allow them to shift an inch. There may be exceptions from situation to situation. There may be times when we have to put our needs to the side because there is something more important, as long as that exception is a consciously made decision made from a place of self-love and self-respect, and that it doesn’t cause us harm in any way. But the lines never move. In this way, we can choose, with awareness and wisdom, and insight, how to react in situations with a developed knowledge of who we are. 

~Karin M. Keyes