Thursday, December 10, 2020

Co-Dependence vs Unconditional Love?

 A FB Friend posted this and it resonated with me.  Here are my random thoughts that it generated:

  • Every family is unique and has its own dynamics.
  • Loving people unconditionally is important to to me.
  • However it is also critical to stand up for one's self and maintain boundaries when necessary.
  • Some people generate energy in others and some people drain energy from others.
  • The "energy generators" tend to be positive, accept you, try to help you, etc.
  • The "energy vampires" often complain, compare, compete or seek to control you.
  • The only person we can control is ourselves, others need to decide for themselves.
  • The challenge of course is how to tell a challenging person that you love them, but that you will simply not spend time with them if the exhibit unacceptable behaviors in your presence.
  • And if they will not or can not change, then deciding what to do and doing it?
  • In my case, that means not cutting difficult people out of my life. But deciding how much and how often I am willing to give them my energy, focus, efforts, etc as a gift.
  • I seek to reassure them I still love them, and yet I limit my time and efforts with them to keep myself healthy.
  • A reminder: many "energy vampires" are unaware that they are doing it and have a bottomless stomach.  You have to set the boundaries and maintain them for your health and well being.
  • Then it is up to them to decide if they want to change or not. 

Thoughts?

2 comments:

  1. I absolutely have this challenge and trying to be a people pleaser just ended up with me divorced and feeling like a failure. Learning to set and enforce boundaries has been so freeing for me. It's meant that some family members aren't really a part of my life any more, but brief encounters here and there prove I've made the right decision. We have so little time in any given day that it's important to be wise with how it is spent.

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