Can You Navigate Love With Healthy Boundaries?

By Lissa Rankin MD

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

Every relationship in my life lately has been an experiment of the idea of unconditional love and freedom. But this week, I finally really got a critical piece of the puzzle. Here’s my epiphany…

It’s totally possible to offer unconditional love plus absolute freedom with no conditions, but access is completely conditional. (LIGHTBULB!)

Brene Brown says the most compassionate people on the planet are the ones with the highest boundaries. Now I get it! For so long, I made the mistake of thinking that unconditional love and freedom meant expecting nothing in return. Wide open heart. Zero conditions. Forgiving people over and over again when they hurt you or betray you. Giving people permission to break your heart. And that’s part of it. You can’t walk around guarding your heart all the time. When the gates of your heart are closed, you may be less likely to get hurt. But you’ll also be incapable of giving and receiving love.