The Wisdom of Cycles and Boundaries
Honouring and living your own truth in a modern world
In the Hindu philosophy, the Hindu trinity reminds and binds us to a repeating Cycle; Birth (Brahma) Life (Vishnu), and Death (Shiva). However, what doesn’t bind us is the ability to learn, change, and adapt to how we encounter each cycle.
I recall during my Jivamukti Yoga training over two decades ago, investigating the essence (and chanting) of this concept. Progressing along my path years later l found the essence of this trinity very relatable to Boundaries. Covering in depth firstly with one of my teachers Elena Brower at the Handel Group and then again when l was studying Coaching at Cambridge. During this time l began to see how inter-relatable both teachings were. One from an Eastern spiritual aspect the other from a Western psychological perspective and how by drawing on both we could protect our mental and emotional health in a more loving compassionate way.
During my Coaching sessions, one of the most difficult topics to discuss was always boundaries; boundaries with oneself and boundaries with others. Often misunderstood and thought of and discussed by some as coming across as selfish. Boundaries, instead can help prevent us from repeating the same old cycle (samsara) when it comes to how we choose and act in our environments; love, work, and play. Cultivating a greater level of understanding and respect with yourself. Honouring and living your truth and preventing the being ‘stuck in a rut’ syndrome from occurring.
Assessing your need for them can often come from a place of feeling like you are stuck in life or equally a major life change that shakes you to your very foundation.
The line of inquiry comes from a deep, quiet compassionate place within you by asking yourself what you need for yourself and being honest about the response, often the hard ask.
Contrary to belief, it is pretty simple. Your choice of words and tone of voice can convey and carry your intention providing it lands in a receptive space (of course)! Being able to say Yes and No to others without feeling guilty or fearsome becomes the first step while accountability to yourself is often a more difficult obstacle to work with and eventually overcome.
Ultimately integrating the boundaries into everyday life can help protect your mental health and help you evolve your vision and design for your life.
PODCAST
To explore how this route of boundaries can evolve the relationship with have with ourselves into permission, contentment and so much more join me in my wonderful and l hope empowering Boundaries and Permission conversation with Jen Francis on the Curiously You Podcast as l delve into the idea of the “experiencing” and the “remembering” self, how in the modern world the two are often lumped together, but in reality they are both very different. Depending on which one we associate with, it can have a huge impact on our well-being.
This episode with Jen Francis on the Curiously You Podcast we dive into the power of our language in helping us break out of old mindsets and belief patterns, and the importance of permission and boundaries. When we are in a rut and unable to change, we tend to use the same language over and over and over again to explain the issue we are struggling with. The language we use has the power to bring about drastic changes in the way we approach our life. We discuss how we can start to become aware of our habitual language patterns in order to change them. Permission is the unspoken powerhouse in our life. We constantly seek it, and give it - to ourselves and others, but it’s not always explicitly discussed. We discuss how to we can cultivate the ability to give ourselves permission, in our actions, thoughts, emotions, and in expressing our wants and needs to others.By extension of speaking about permission, we discuss boundaries, because permission only exists in this context because of the existence of boundaries. We discuss how to set boundaries for ourselves and in our relationships, and how our language influences the perceived boundaries we put in place, and the permissions we seek. We speak about “The Happiness Trap”, how happiness is no longer useful in describing how we want to feel. We also discuss non-avoidance in experiencing our emotions, and the importance of honouring our sadness.