Relationships Information presented by the helpful gang over at personals4all

How To (Wo)man Your Boundaries


The first time I ever heard "boundaries" mentioned, it was by my then husband. He informed me that I had to protect and hold his boundaries. (There was nothing that man wouldn't dump at my door!)

It took me a long while to learn:

a)what boundaries were

b)that he was responsible for his own boundaries

c)that I had boundaries too

For women who've been through an abusive relationship, it can be hard to understand about boundaries; and harder still to establish them. Their lives are like great open stretches of country that pretty well anyone can ride roughshod over. (When the steppes are that open, it's not that surprising that a Ghenghis Khan-like figure will gallop across them on a mangy steed, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.)

These women may be able to be utterly uncompromising on little things. A couple I've worked with were adamant that hell could freeze over before an obscenity would ever pass their lips. Yet they'd let people take advantage of them endlessly with barely a murmur. Because they had no effective boundaries.

So what are boundaries? High walls and fortified defences are not boundaries, both because they leave the person inside them in a constant state of siege and because they can always be breached.

For me, boundaries are a series of gates into different areas of your life that you decide to open or close at will. Whether you choose to open them, or not, depends on whether you judge the person standing at them to be trustworthy.

Every area of your life where you feel even remotely vulnerable is a boundary. You have a perfect right, even a duty to yourself, to choose whether or not to let someone through any one of your gates. You don't even have to be consistent. What's right for you today, might be wrong tomorrow. That's fine too. What's right with one person may be totally wrong with another.

At this point you need to ask yourself where you truly stand in your own universe. If you stand somewhere on the periphery (or deep in space), you can't possibly police all the gates into your universe. Marauders can invade from every direction before you can possibly mobilise yourself to close the gates.

When you stand at the centre of your universe then you have more or less 360 degree vision. You can keep a watchful eye on all the gates.

When you put yourself at the centre of your universe, you occupy the best position from which to (wo)man your boundaries.

And the curious thing is this: if a boundary is (wo)manned, most people won't even try to breach it.

I coach women into developing strong boundaries.

(C) 2005 Annie Kaszina

Joyful Coaching

An NLP Practitioner and Women's Empowerment Coach, Annie helps women to create strong boundaries, so they can learn to build healthy, nurturing relationships where they can give and receive the love they want, safely.

Email:annie@joyfulcoaching.com To subscribe to Annie's twice monthly ezine, or order her eBook 'The Woman You Want To Be, go: to http://www.joyfulcoaching.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Examiner.com

Relationships in the news: Jennifer Garner fears stalker
Examiner.com - 12 hours ago
by Debra Collins, Relationship Examiner Actress Jennifer Garner was granted a three year restraining order today for herself, her husband Ben Affleck, ...


Plenty of past relationships in Apple Cup
SportingNews.com - 23 hours ago
SEATTLE (AP) -- Cody Bruns used to get grief as a kid growing up in southeastern Washington. Smack in the middle of Cougar country, Bruns would proudly wear ...


Times Online

Know which relationships count
Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN - Nov 19, 2008
Good for Tom Friedman, the St. Louis Park kid who grew up to become a topnotch New York Times columnist and author, for paying attention to the relationship ...
Video: Hillary Will Get SOS Nom Soon CBS
Clinton as top US diplomat? OK by top GOP senator The Associated Press
Obama cabinet vetting process the most rigid on record Toronto Star
Examiner.com - Christian Science Monitor
all 4,645 news articles


Anixter International Inc. Comments on Customer Bankruptcy
MarketWatch - 7 hours ago
A current assessment of our key customer relationships shows this situation to be unique in terms of the circumstances and relative size of the exposure. ...
Anixter to take charge on customer bankruptcy Chicago Tribune
Anixter International Inc. Comments on Customer Bankruptcy International Business Times
all 21 news articles


SafePlace awared $1M grant to promote safe teen relationships
Bizjournals.com, NC - Nov 20, 2008
SafePlace has been awarded a grant of up to $1 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a program that promotes healthy, safe teen relationships. ...
$18 Million Dollar Initiative to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence PNN
Boston gets $1 million to prevent teen violence Boston Globe (registration)
all 6 news articles


Better family relationships goal of Placerville program
Sacramento Bee,  USA - 2 hours ago
By Cathy Locke By Cathy Locke "Parenting from the Heart" workshops, designed to help parents improve their relationship with their children, will be offered ...


Round Valley schools focus on relationships, new ideas
White Mountain Independent, AZ - 5 hours ago
Udall, in his third year with the district, said Round Valley schools will continue to focus on relationships, both among each other and with parents. ...


Relationships with caregivers in childcare affect kids’ stress
Entertainment and Showbiz!, India - 15 hours ago
Conflicted relationships were said to occur when teachers tried to control resistant children, when children perceived their teachers as unfriendly, ...


Skyworks' Good Relationships
Zacks.com, IL - 3 hours ago
Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (SWKS) designs, manufactures, and markets wireless semiconductor solutions for the mobile communications industry. ...


Bitter Breakup Playlist
Atlanta Journal Constitution,  USA - 5 hours ago
That’s right, some single people feel the need to get rid of the shaky, expiration-dating relationships in order to avoid awkward gift exchanges, ...

Relationships - Google News

home | site map
© 2006