Make your own family with Redefining Love

Redefining love allows you to love people from a distance. If someone is toxic in your life, it’s ok to withhold close relationship, not because you hate them (even if the other person says that is the case), and not because you can’t forgive (also a highly likely response). You respect others’ right to be at whatever place they are in any given moment. But you also respect yourself enough to recognize that you are in a different place.

You may choose to share your whole self with your family of origin, or you may choose to share yourself with only those members of your family of origin who respect your boundaries. Or, in the case of some highly toxic families, you may choose to love your family of origin from a safe distance (across town or across the country). The key is to acknowledge that your relationships are a choice. And choice is a key component to accountability.

There are plenty of people in the world who will accept you just as you are. There’s no point in wasting your few precious years on this earth in close relationship with people who don’t respect you.

Whether you choose to love your family of origin with daily contact, occasional contact, or from a distance, you have a right to determine where you end and others begin.

Once you have redefined love you can distinguish between your capacity for love, which is infinite, and your physical space in the world, which is limited. There is only so much YOU to go around, so choose carefully!

With redefined love, your family is constantly growing and changing. People come into our lives for a little while and they are so vitally important for our growth, and you to theirs. As your life and the other person’s shifts – as it inevitably will – you may move in different directions. It doesn’t mean you love them any less. It simply means your lives have diverted onto different paths. Perhaps you’ll cross paths again someday, perhaps not.

This fluidity only works if we remain accountable. We have a responsibility to those we love, and we love everyone, whether they are a part of our family or not. Our responsibility is to know ourselves well enough to set firm boundaries for a healthy life, and to respect others’ boundaries as well. We must give ourselves permission to let go of relationships that are not serving a healthy purpose in our lives.

Each of us, if we are lucky, encounter a rare few who come into our lives as family, and they remain there for the duration. With redefined love, this only works if both you and the other person respects and maintains healthy boundaries and accountability over the long term.

In my experience, the closer I get to mastering redefined love, the more deep and meaningful connections I am able to make with others.