For the next 16 years that I lived there I enjoyed walking miles on that road. I went from a limiting definition, not seeing what was there, to a more joyful experience and many hours of healthy walking.
The magic occurred when I remembered a skill I learned in Avatar, that empowers us to explore definitions, boundaries and labels.
We define boundaries and labels to help us make sense of our lives. On the other hand they can keep us from seeing what is right under our noses. Just like I could not see that trail until
I changed my viewpoint and magically it was there.
As I write this, there is a war in Ukraine that is very much about who gets to set (define) the boundaries there. Here we see that defining a boundary can be a life affirming or life threatening decision!
My grandparents came to the USA from the city of Odessa in the early 1900s. Though Odessa has always been in an area called “The Ukraine” it had been ruled by the Russian government for hundreds of years. They called themselves Russian Jews. Now I realize it was\is part of Ukraine. I am learning to call them Ukrainian Jews rather than Russian! It is notable to me how this simple
label change makes me feel different about myself and helps me understand better what my forebears felt and experienced in their lives.
It is often said that all humans are the same. Yet there are so many ways we define ourselves and others: by country, ethnicity, race, skin color, job, education, etc., even by the foods we eat or don’t eat. At times these definitions can be useful or fun. At other times they can be limiting or lead to hostilities.
In business, as well as in personal relationships, boundaries can be very important. They set expectations and limit risks. They may be formal, as in contracts and hierarchies, or
informal, as often happens between friends and acquaintances.
Yet there are other times when boundaries can be limiting in ways that we don’t want. Too often we feel trapped but don’t know how those limitations happened. They just seemed to happen to us without any deliberate decision on our part.
In the sense of living deliberately and creating deliberately, there are times to create definition and times to redefine ourselves or even to lose all definition. It is a very powerful skill to learn.
As Harry Palmer states in his introduction to the Expansion Exercise: “What if you were able to relocate the boundaries of the location of the definition you consider you? Do you end at the skin? Or do you extend beyond?“
So please try the Expansion Exercise for yourself. It is best as a guided meditation. Here is the link of Harry Palmer leading the exercise:
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