Establishing healthy energetic boundaries is key to keeping a harmonious flow of energy through our relationships and in our lives. This can be especially challenging with our most intimate relationships as we are highly sensitive to the energetic pull that they have on our hearts. We often want their happiness and well-being even more than they want it for themselves and get overly involved in trying to create it for them. This energetic drain can block our heart center which often results in feelings of compassion fatigue.
Keeping healthy energetic boundaries between ourselves and another person isn’t always easy especially with those we love. First, we have to trust that they are following their own spiritual path no matter what this path may look like at the time. Ultimately, we have no idea what they require for their own personal transformation and must trust that they are creating life situations for this to happen.
The blurring of our energetic boundaries with another person is similar to the biological concept of osmosis. With osmosis, there is a movement of molecules between one permeable cell membrane and another. This permeability between one cell and another resembles the permeability between our energy field and someone else. Many of us who are highly sensitive struggle with keeping our energy field from bleeding into those around us. For example, we can pick up on the negative energies of others and take them on as if they were our own. This is why we often feel fatigued, drained or exhausted just by being in the presence of such “energy vampires.”
To establish healthy energetic boundaries, we must open our heart compassionately in healthy detachment and maintain a positive flow of energy with any person without suffering with them. For example, when someone wants to vent their feelings we can listen with an open heart and refrain from giving advice or trying to fix the situation. This loving detachment keeps us from taking things “to heart” which can stress our heart center, resulting in our own physical and emotional distress or depression.
Become aware of certain people, processes or situations where you are vulnerable to taking on negative energies. Before you engage in any interaction, make the discerning choice to keep a healthy physical, emotional and spiritual separation. Take time to check your thoughts, feelings, and actions to discern if you are directing positive energy. Move beyond the pattern of right/wrong, good/bad, and win/lose and acknowledge others for their points of view, and genuinely love them even when you disagree or hold different perspectives. Practice healthy detachment by sustaining loving compassion for a person’s “being” and removing yourself from their unhealthy physical patterns and processes.