Boundaries
This is a topic for those who struggle with putting up boundaries for their own protection and empowerment. Some people, those who hold strong boundaries, don’t understand this concept because they don’t let anything “get in” and “under their skin.” It’s a foreign concept to them. Many of us, however, struggle with setting boundaries for ourselves in life and it affects us in dramatically different ways across all areas of our lives.
Boundaries are limits we have in place for our various life aspects across physical, psychological and spiritual levels. Sometimes these boundaries we hold are conscious, though they are more often unconscious. It’s a spiritual practice to consciously analyse where we have our boundaries in place and where they are lacking. It’s actually crucial to know how your boundaries are placed because they can be how you limit yourself and your life expression or where you get taken advantage of and exploited by others. They can also enable the healthy exchange of energy between others and provide safety and support on the path to enlightenment and ecstasy.
Learning about boundaries can ultimately bring us liberation. It’s a fine balancing act to know where to have boundaries and how to implement them. Boundaries all the time with everything limits our life expression and possibilities in life for alternative paths and alignment with divinity. Learning that boundaries exist is bringing awareness to them and therefore it becomes easier to put them in place as needed and dissolve them as needed.
Boundaries are required for protection. That statement in itself is a little too general so let’s get a bit more specific. If a woman walks alone at night on the streets with earphones in and dark sunglasses on, she interferes with her natural boundaries that exist from the sensory information she gathers from the world around her. She compromises her instinctive capacity for self protection by limiting her overall perception. Further to this, if her mind is wandering in stories of the past and hopes and fears for the future then she is not present and this lack of presence removes her further from her natural instincts and boundaries she would otherwise naturally have in place if she wasn’t distracted by her mind. In an ideal world, she’d be safe and maybe in some locations across the world, her night walk would suit her just fine with no dramas. We don’t live in an ideal world and in many locations across the world there are those who are taking to trespassing others’ boundaries for their own gains. Sometimes it’s for their own survival, sometimes for greed or even entertainment.
On another level, the spiritual level, it’s suggested that we can define subtle boundaries to certain vibrations. If the woman above were to hold boundaries up against negative and dark energies then she may be far less likely to attract them into her auric sphere regardless of where she was in the world, walking as she was. If her boundaries welcomed good, light energy then that’s what she’d be primarily attracting. However, there’s a lot more at play here that would need to be considered for that to be efficacious. More on that below.
Taking personal time and space for yourself to process thoughts and feelings is setting boundaries to those who would otherwise have you all to themselves in their time to fulfil their needs and desires. Boundaries assist in the deflection of unwanted advances from others. Boundaries can be verbalised or indicated through actions as the most common ways of implementing them. If I were to say, “no” to a sexual advance you made against me and you didn’t listen to that boundary I attempted to put up, I’d have to make it firmer. Backing down should not be a consideration if you really value your wellbeing. Though many don’t value themselves enough and that’s another deeper topic for discussion. So how to make that particular boundary firmer? The verbalising itself is not enough, actions have to back it. Perhaps you’d listen if I said “NO” loudly from the base of my body for others to hear, with solid conviction in my gaze matching yours and my fists clenched and ready. Boundaries are your natural and fair birthright as a sovereign being of humanity and spirit. Sometimes it just takes a bit of time in life to realise that.
Protective sheaths of energy deflect unwanted energy and negativity. How do they work? The thinking behind this is that if we hold a certain vibration of energy then we will be protected, light and clear out of harm's way. For this to work, however, much work needs to be done on developing self-awareness and finding one’s true ground and connection to Earth as well as to the Divine. It doesn’t fly for the spiritual wonder-bees convincing their mind they are protected when they know nothing of how their bodies actually work, let alone how the instinctive primal kingdom works and its pecking order. Protective sheaths, which are really healthy boundaries, prevent external energy from mucking up our energy field so that we can keep order and natural peace, even euphoria across physical, psychological and spiritual levels. Protective sheaths come about by devoted spiritual practice wherein the self is preserved and revered. They come about through exercise and building strength and support in the physical body. They come about by reinforcing constructive thinking, steering away from self-sabotaging patterns and allowing the proper processing of emotions as they present rather than suppressing them and letting them congest the body and bring on sickness. Poor psychological health and physical ailments deteriorate personal boundaries as well, leaving individuals highly vulnerable.
