Self-compassion as the route to better boundaries.
Who knew?
Not even me, until I started writing the course materials for Toward Better Boundaries: A Thirty Day Practice, and the theme of self-compassion strongly emerged.
Open road, Utah (photo by me and my cell phone)
One of the things I’ve realized with the boundary-challenged is that we often have a great deal of compassion for others, and an instinctual understanding of what others need, but we may not have the same level of compassion for ourselves, much less an understanding of what we need.
And so cultivating self-compassion and self-understanding became a major focus of the first group practice, which we just completed.
For me personally, the group has been a very rewarding and energizing experience.
Unofficial group feedback leads me to believe that for others it was quite challenging and possibly not for the faint of heart!
I don’t say that to discourage anyone from participating, but just to say that you’ll get your money’s worth.
The truth is, if boundaries were easy, we’d all have good ones already.
We have good reasons why we haven’t set the boundaries we’d like to set, and we have to approach those reasons with compassion and gentleness, while at the same time being willing to release what no longer serves us.
We all developed our behavioral patterns out of necessity. We used the tools we had, to deal with life the best way we could.
But when those behaviors are no longer useful, when those tools are inadequate for life as we find it now, that’s the time to release those old ways of being, and move forward.
Join me for boundaries practice in a supportive online group environment.
Registration is open for the next session, beginning April 29.