Quotes About Boundaries

I remember reading a novel once that said the native Alaskans who came in contact with the white missionaries thought, at first, they were ghosts. And why shouldn't they have thought that? Like ghosts, white people move effortlessly through through boundaries and borders. Like ghosts, we can be anywhere we want to be.

The world is a place where the extraordinary can sit just beside the ordinary with the thinnest of boundaries.

Now I know: adulthood is a line drawn in the sand. At some point, your child will be standing on the other side.

Jordan pinched the bridge of his nose. 'The only decent piece of trivia I know is that it's against the law to cross the state boundaries of Iowa with a duck on your head.

You must be exhausted from singing & need to rest your throat. - Trey Nice Way to tell her to shut up - Anna

Boundaries are easier to manage when your values are well-defined.

Don't try to skin your rabbit and keep it as a pet too.

You will never change what you tolerate.

This abnormal cheap energy petroleum age may appear to be a bonanza, but in the long run it has shredded boundaries and proximities that defined economic and social normalcy for centuries. In the continuum of human history, this petroleum age is a mere blip. Cheap energy, on a timeline, is scarcely a speck on the chart. Yet we have the audacity, the irrationality, to plunge forward with building designs, suburban designs, transportation designs as if this cheap

Your friendliness with people does not make them your friends.

When the love of God is absent from friendships, friends don't become platonic friends anymore; they become boyfriends and girlfriends.

Every friendship has its own standards.

Every friendship has its own protocols.

Parents who have no time to build friendships with their children, have already ended up exposing them to many sexual practices.

When you become so much obsessed with your marriage; you lose your friendship with your spouse.

We understood each other, yes, but that did not mean we knew each other, or wanted to. How would we have maintained that unselfconscious grace that was so important to us both, if we had not also maintained the essential secretness of our inner selves?

Other things are probably better off left alone. Like a dead mouse at the back of a cupboard.

Without our anger we become doormats and people pleasers. In childhood you were most likely severely shamed and punished when you expressed anger.

Healthy shame is the basic metaphysical boundary for human beings. It is the emotional energy that signals us that we are not God—that we will make mistakes, that we need help. Healthy shame gives us permission to be human.

To develop strong ego boundaries, children need parents with strong boundaries. No shame-based parent has these. Toxic shame greatly damages our boundaries. Without strong boundaries for protection, a child cannot thrive. Having damaged boundaries is like living in a house without locks on the doors.

There is also enmeshment and boundary confusion between the daughter and mother. The daughter is often carrying the mother's repressed anger and sadness about the father. This feels overwhelming since these are deeply repressed emotions. Therefore, to starve and avoid eating is a protection against feeling these overwhelming emotions.

Healthy shame keeps us grounded. It is a yellow light, warning us of our essential limitations. Healthy shame is the basic metaphysical boundary for human beings. It is the emotional energy that signals us that we are not God—that we will make mistakes, that we need help. Healthy shame gives us permission to be human.

It is impossible to be intimate if you have no sense of self. How can you share yourself with another if you do not really know who you are? How can anyone know you if you do not know who you really are? One way a person builds a strong sense of self is by developing strong boundaries

Codependency is a condition wherein one has no inner life. Happiness is on the outside.