I'm being myself and setting boundaries and it's a trip, man. I've been doing it for a while, but my capacity for saying No and Stop that has been steadily increasing. In addition, my fear of being rejected, misunderstood, or purposely harmed has decreased. I'm at the point in my healing where i'm present, conscious, and mindful enough to feel strange and different. Like, brand spanking new, just out of the box. It's quite the experience. I've been tackling some bigger problems that have been an issue for years, and most of those involve how i deal with other humans.
I've tolerated low-key abuse from a loved one for years, now. I've done so due to guilt over being crappy at relationships in general, and making awful mistakes in our relationship, specifically. They've seen me at my worst. I was dissociated to some degree most of the time in the beginning, and after that I was in and out of control; erratic is putting it mildly. I've let them down more times than i know or could count, and i'm to blame for some of the burdens they carry.
So when they called me names, i let it pass.
When they broke stuff, i reminded myself i've broken stuff, too.
When they invaded my personal space aggressively, i backed down.
When they invaded my personal space gently, i shut down.
When they broke promises or otherwise let me down, i overlooked it.
When they picked at me: corrected my language, questioned my beliefs, treated me as less than, called me out for behaviour they themselves were displaying...
I dissociated. I questioned my reality.
I became smaller and smaller.
Now i am stronger. I know myself better and see things more clearly. I'm present and mindful in most interactions with loved ones, so i'm not nearly as apt to accept another person's version of events over my own. I understand there's perspective and sides of a coin, which includes my perspective and my side. I'm beginning to know my worth and i no longer fold like a cheap suit, allowing someone power and control over me. EVEN LOVED ONES.
We've been dysfunctional since the beginning, but that was on me. Eventually things shifted as the nature of the relationship changed. I won't accept abuse from anyone any longer. However, our ties are the kind that i will never sever. And because i'm older and wiser, i can take the lead (and frankly i should) on changing the way we treat each other. It's not been an easy adjustment for either of us, but especially them. I've been sick and dysfunctional for most of their lifetime. This is just and right and good, but in a very real way it isn't fair. Many of our interactions have been unfair to them.
But this is for the best - and that's true for both of us.
I'm laying down firm boundaries:
- You cannot speak to me like that;
- You must contribute this, this, and this to our relationship;
- Destruction of property will not be tolerated;
- Aggression will be met with you being removed from my space.
It took some years to get here, because they deserved time to come around to the changes in me. Almost no one else gets that time, but they do, and trust me, they've earned it. The best thing i've done for them, and for our relationship, has been my commitment to myself. Let me be clear though - i utterly reject the belief that one must love oneself before being capable of loving anyone else. In my life it is provably not so. It was my love of them and others, that gave me the will and the strength to learn to love myself.
I couldn't love myself as a child. I didn't possess a child's normal, natural selfishness. I was alive only for the consumption and pleasure of others. I remember thinking about my uncle when i was very small. I knew i was alive because of the feelings in my body when i thought of him. It was pure, joyful, beautiful, love. I know i loved others, but i was so dissociated all the time i rarely felt anything. I certainly loved my grandparents, and my long time babysitter, but i adored, my uncle. If you'd asked me i would've said i loved my mother, of course. And the man that i called Daddy. But inside my body there were no feelings that would normally be associated with love. I felt a desperate ache; a pain, mixed with an imperative to please and placate. There was numbness, too. And a dark, sucking void of nothingness filled my bones instead of marrow.
It never occurred to me to love myself - i barely thought of myself. In some ways i was no more sentient than a sneezing sponge. No more than a houseplant that grows towards the window filled with sunlight. I was responding to external stimuli in an instinctual way.
Now i am a fully sentient being, one who is seeking homeostasis. That involves relationships with loved ones around me being healthy and respectful. There are things i want and don't want in a relationship that are subjective, others are objective. This is a transitional period for everyone in a relationship with me. Everyone. From my husband, to my children, to my friends, to the people who provide me with services. It's all changing.
For people who've been in my circle for a while, it can be startling, off-putting, frustrating, annoying, and very, very inconvenient. Most people fight change, especially when it requires them to change, as well. A shift in perspective, a rebalancing of power, different responses, attitudes, behaviours... I've been met with anger and pushback from some people. Others have seemed resentful, almost afraid, and those people have noticeably pulled away.
I can't find it inside me to be sorry for a bit of it.
I have empathy for their struggle, but i'm not remotely tempted to blur any lines or change my path.
I will continue to draw lines in the sand, to put up curtains, fences, doors, too. I'll flip the deadbolt on any door to anyone. I already have. Some doors are locked up for good, some i might open if there's a knock.
I'm bringing a better, more genuine, and absolutely more functional version of myself to the relationship table. Anyone is free to think of me what they will, and stick with our relationship or walk away. I've already marked some that seem to prefer me more fucked up. I can't know for sure what their reasons are for that, but some appear to thrive on drama, some are chronic rescuers, others surround themselves with those they can control. And some, as i wrote about a short while ago, just aren't that into me.
This relationship is primary, and significant. I'm laying down boundaries but i'll never walk away. This is in both our best interests. It's dicey now, but i know it'll get better. For them, for me, for us. This trip is worth its ticket price.
Enjoy the rest of your week, if you can.
Love and Peace,
~H~
IMAGE: Mick Haupt
WordPress.com
