Thin Boundaries for Better Endings

“You’ve been given the ability to build a magical tunnel that will quickly and secretly connect your home with the location of your choice — anywhere on Earth. Where’s the other end of your tunnel?” (reblogged from The Mobius Strip blog by dreamwalkeramrita)

 Consider the idea that some people have “thinner boundaries” than others.  Drs. Michael Jawers and Marc Micozzi have written about this in a study of sensitivity factors in humans. In The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion  these authors describe boundary issues as follows:

The personality construct of Boundaries was developed by Ernest Hartmann (http://www.tufts.edu/~ehartm01/) , a psychiatrist and sleep disorder researcher. He asserts that each person can be characterized on a spectrum of boundaries from thick to thin. Thick boundary people “strike[s] us as very solid and well organized; they keep everything in its place. They are well defended. They seem rigid, even armored; we sometimes speak of them as thick-skinned.” At the other end of the spectrum, thin boundary individuals are “especially sensitive, open, or vulnerable. In their minds, things are relatively fluid.”

Other characteristics of the thin boundary personality type are:

• A less solid or definite sense of one’s own skin as a body boundary
• An enlarged sense of merging with another person when kissing or making love
• A penchant for immersing oneself in something – whether a personal relationship, a memory or a daydream
• Sensitivity to physical and emotional pain, in oneself as well as in others
• An enhanced ability to recall dreams but also a tendency to experience nightmares

It seems to me that thin boundaries relate to what we have been discussing this month in relation to the life metaphor “Life is but a Dream”.  Let me start the final week of this month’s topic then by considering how enlisting your Teacher archetype to help you “mine” the positive metaphor Life is but a Dream can lead to your own Better Endings.

Life as a Dream opens unlimited potentials because by their nature dreams allow creative flexibility.

 

I invite you to ask your inner Teacher to help you envision a “better ending scenario” for some situation you have been feeling ‘stuck’ in or hampered by. If you could transform this current situation-scenario by imagining a ‘better ending’, what would that other ending be, from the standpoint of your Inner Teacher? Let me role model briefly with a Teacher and Self dialogue:

S: What CAN I do to move forward with my book project? Nothing is happening; it feels stuck without communication from others.

T: Step back so you can look at the whole picture. Aim to gain a greater vision of what you are trying to express and share.

S: Should I edit then? Revision the whole approach?

T: One small step at a time, dear. Envision how you might reformat according to your highest Vision.

Do you see how direct and easy Archetype Dialogue can be? It allows you to immediately tap into your own multiplicity, to query and then to listen to your own interior, alternate perspectives. This can help you to resolve inner conflicts and to move forward after “checking in”.

The common notion of following your “inner counsel” is enhanced by envisioning your Inner Council of archetype Allies who are your intrinsic, ‘personal unconscious’ ensemble cast of mythic characters. Get to know your inner ALLIES, because that is what they aim to be, working together toward your own highest Good!

I welcome YOUR comments and stories.