It can be so helpful to express our unsaid words, anger and grief to those who have hurt us. There is no good reason to carry someone else's baggage up the mountain. It weighs us down on a journey that is already challenging enough. Better to shed it so that we can move into life with greater freedom. At the same time, we have to be sure not to make our healing dependent on how others receive our expression. Many of those we share with will be too unconscious, stubborn or defensive to take in our experience, even if we express it in the gentlest of ways. It may be too shocking to their ways of organizing reality. It may be too painful to face. Not everyone is ready or able to do the deep work that self-reflection demands. This is not to say that we hold back- we must express our truth one way or the other- but it is to say that we are best served by sharing it without expectation. The liberation lies in the expression itself. - Jeff Brown

If you struggle to set boundaries, you may tend to cut people out when resentments arise. Learning how to set boundaries will help you sustain your relationships through moments of conflict. - Hailey Paige Magee

I read somewhere that boundaries aren’t walls; they’re doors showing people how to come in. They’re not meant to cut off people, but to teach others acceptable ways to be relationship with us. There’s a way in as well as a way out. With this positive reframing of boundaries, it doesn’t always have to be about saying “No,” putting up a wall, or cutting people out. It doesn’t have to be violent or abrupt. It can be a “Yes, when...,” a strengthening of our own sense of self, and an invitation for others to honor that. - Hailey Paige Magee