I’ve leaned over the edge and fallen into my heart
It happened without me realizing it
I set my intention to exist in my truth
To find my alignment within
I feel so deeply about everything
and wonder if I fit in at all any more
to the world teeming around me
it all seems so far off shore
I still look the same, there’s been no change there.
People seem to recognize my voice.
I still eat and sleep, laugh and cry
What’s different is my insides
I stand in one place
And see a panoramic view of the
World around me with all the lights
hurrying about looking for their truth
It’s up to me to decide to listen
To the hopes and pain
Or choose a boundary to keep me sane
Being an empath is hard
We are beacons of light emitting a charge
We are detectors of pain and hurt from life
Living with our hearts in our bodies of light
we each are striving for the path to our heart
to feel the truth in our core and love
Practicing self-acceptance is a key
Using boundaries to set us free
Sit down wherever you are
And listen to the wind singing in your veins.
Feel the love, the longing, the fear in your bones.
Open your heart to who you are, right now,
Not who you would like to be,
Not the saint you are striving to become,
But the being right here before you, inside you, around you.
All of you is holy.
You are already more and less
Than whatever you can know.
Breathe out,
Touch in,
Let go.
Participants’ Reflections
That reading said so much today. It reminded me of the blog about detachment, about the Valley of Detachment. It is so important to detach. I heard on television that we are here at this moment, and what you do for the next six weeks defines you as what you are willing to do for your country because your country needs you right now. I’ve been agonizing over that, about what am I doing for my country in its great time of need. Am I just doing silly things to entertain people or am I really doing something? I was getting caught up in the audience, in looking at myself six months from now, looking back at what am I doing, what did I do. I have to let that go. I have to detach from that. Continue to do what I’m doing. I do believe in what I am doing, and somehow it will mean something and it will keep meaning something. I have to detach from the outcome. Thank you.
There’s such power in aligning with our hearts and speaking our truth, and doing what feels right to us.
Thank you so much. Every day is just wonderful. I heard in today’s reading boundaries. About choosing boundaries to keep me sane and using boundaries to set us free. I never had boundaries. During the meditation, it came to me that I’ve heard people say ‘stay in your own hula hoop.’ Stay in your circle. I’ve heard people say that boundaries are important. What came to me is that I tend to hook myself in other situations and that doesn’t keep me sane. It gets me out of that quiet peaceful place. My mother always went on and on about something, and then she’d say, “It’s none of my business.” I find myself out of my circle. It’s none of my business. I can set my inner boundaries to take care of my sanity. It’s a different way of looking at boundaries.
When I teach about boundaries and teach Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, I ask for a volunteer to come up and I have them stand six feet from me. And as I’m talking, I ask them how they feel and they say, “I feel fine.” And as I’m talking about the benefits of boundaries, I step one step closer and ask them how they’re feeling and they say, “I feel fine.” And then I keep talking and step one step closer, until, all of a sudden, I hit a boundary. You can see the look on their face, their eyes change, and they say, “I guess I’m okay.” I ask, “Are you sure?” “Yeah.” And then I step one step closer and the alarms are going off. I’ve clearly crossed a boundary. It gives people a visceral experience of a boundary that they weren’t able to define before because our boundaries are much farther out than we think, physically or energetically. It’s a great way to feel our boundaries and defining them. We can do it with our emotions or our physical body. It’s an important lesson.
We forget that boundaries keep us safe. They also keep us in integrity. If we don’t get those boundaries, then we don’t know, and people around us don’t know what we want and what is in our heart and what will make things good for us. I’ve come to realize that the importance of agreements or contracts. We do that in a lot of groups I’m in. We have an agreement of how we will treat each other, and that’s in a formal group. It doesn’t have to be a formal group. You can do that in a relationship with someone else, about what you’re comfortable with, about making amends. If we hurt someone, unintentionally, how to make amends. If you are explicit about that, then you are really protecting yourself and you have the opportunity for the relationship to go deeper because you know your boundaries and they are important to you.
I’m remembering how boundaries can also be imposed upon us. And it’s important to set our own boundaries. I can remember growing up, my mother saying, “It’s you and me against the world.” And I was like, “No, I want the world.” I’m very good at setting my own boundaries. I can say no when I need to. I don’t want someone else to set their boundaries for me.
Defining what we need. Many people don’t know their own boundaries and so they tromp all over our boundaries without realizing it.
Right now, particularly with people so in your face, literally and figuratively, they don’t have respect. A few months ago, a biker in a hardware store—when I asked him to put a mask on, he got about a foot away from me and was shouting at me. He was definitely imposing his standards on me. Whereas, I had asked him respectfully. It’s fascinating because the issue of boundaries becomes something we have to deal with every single day now. It’s fluid and a real challenge for everyone. We see boundaries with the masks and the gloves and the six feet distance.
That made me think about the dichotomy between our commitment, sense, and belief in the common good, as opposed to what is good for us. And we need to figure out how to be respectful and constructive for both.
The topic of boundaries is good. It’s important. I had a little time trying to get settled because I’m visiting family. Boundaries is a good topic for me in how I set them, how I respect them. For me, it’s easy for my family to think there are no boundaries because we are family. When I was young, it was easy for them to impose their culture on me around boundaries. Today, as I’m making new boundaries, I’m noticing I’m changing and they want me to change back. It’s an interesting dance. I’m really thankful that my attempts at setting clear boundaries are being heard. I’m grateful for that today. It’s not always been that way. It’s been a process, and it takes growth and time. Thank you for the topic and the meditation and all you shared.
As you were talking, it reminded me how important grounding is with setting our boundaries. When we are grounded, we are in our body and paying attention to those boundaries. Think about those roots growing out of your feet.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your time and trust. I appreciate the sacredness the silence brings. It is soothing. Have a pleasant day in your bodies surrounded by your boundaries.