Being S.A.F.E. – Our 33rd Book is a Crash Course on Boundaries
It was a late night in April. It was the night before I was to fly to the U.S. after about 3 years away. I could not sleep. I thought it was excitement perhaps. I was wrong.
I had given myself permission to switch off from work mode and be open to traveling and preparing for my sessions at the upcoming Bioneers conference in Berkeley, California. What I later realized was, my brain needed permission to allow another book to channel through.
After tossing and turning, meditating, reading, and finally deciding to just lie there idle, the first inklings of the book arrived in a flash. I got up to make a note of it. Two hours later, I had a book draft. I had literally written it in a state of trance, because 16 hours later, when I got on the plane, I had no recollection of what I wrote.
My intrepid editor, Dr. Margaret Cornelius, informed me that the book is direct and to the point. That was a relief. I knew I’d been tired that night. And yet, all my books arrive in this way, with their own timing. My real job is to trust and surrender (and it’s my mantra too, for life).
Being S.A.F.E. is a brief guide to boundaries based on a framework I developed some years ago. The S.A.F.E. Framework stands for Stance, Attitude, Foundation, and Execution; each of these words represent sections that relate to important aspects of setting boundaries in the workplace. Of course, these instructions apply to the rest of life as well. I use the framework with teams that need to learn boundaries, facilitating workshops that allow them to practice setting and enforcing healthy boundaries.
Boundaries signal where the other person ends and you begin. Boundaries are crucial in all relationships, but we don’t really find ways of learning them until we really need them. As someone who had to learn boundaries the hard way on my recovery from people-pleasing, I have a lot of compassion for anyone who is struggling as I have in the past.
To learn more about how to be S.A.F.E., which really means to set and enforce strong boundaries authentically, check out my new book, and let me know what you think.
