Few people wake up with a goal of creating dysfunctional relationships with their friends, relatives, coworkers, or kids. Many of us failed to learn what healthy, loving, and respectful relationships look like. While most of our parents did the best they could, many of them were themselves struggling with learning these lessons from their parents that did they best they could. More and more people of all ages are looking for love in the wrong places, from the wrong people and in all the wrong ways. Healthy relationships have two important components:
A. Care
B. Boundaries
A + B = C (Empathy and Respect)
Empathy communicates a sense of unconditional caring. How do we find empathy? One way is by shifting our focus from seeing scarcity to seeing abundance, or living in a state of gratitude.
Respect communicates an acknowledgement and adherence to limits.
"Taking good care of ourselves by setting limits communicates that we respect ourselves enough to expect respectful treatment from others." -Charles Fay, PhD, Parenting with Love and Logic
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