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An Honest Conversation on Setting Boundaries

Jason Henry
6 min readAug 8, 2021

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Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash. Also, please notice the visual metaphor here.

Look, I’m all for loving your enemies and trying to be the example you want to see in the world, but there’s also a time and a place for everything. One needs to know when it is time to extend the olive branch and when to retract it.

I’m tired of seeing the people I care about trampled into the dirt by people they think care about them. They will argue that they really do care, but when you ask them about the ignored phone calls, insensitive comments and “forgetfulness,” they give some half-baked excuse.

If you want my opinion, this is self-abuse. It’s bringing yourself to the lions’ den in the hope that today they will allow you to pet them and not bite your arm off. There is a pattern of behavior and personality traits that are being ignored.

Whether you’re the one who is having difficulties setting boundaries or it’s the people you care about, it’s high time we diagnose why. Just telling people “you need to set boundaries” isn’t working. There’s a reason one moves from person to person and allows ill-treatment. And if we can get to the bottom of this, maybe we can reinstall the blocks that will keep bad actors out of our lives.

Respecting Boundaries

Firstly, let’s look at what happens when someone mistreats someone who has weak boundaries.

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Jason Henry
Jason Henry

Written by Jason Henry

Counselling Psychologist | Current Writer | Constant Learner | “By your stumbling the world is perfected.”

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