Knowing your boundaries is a challenge for many of us. It takes time to identify what those boundaries are based on what we have experienced or seen or what is valuable to us and what can be let go.I have been contemplating whether I am establishing boundaries and with whom or why with whom? More like, why was I not letting folks go?It turns out I have been, or I thought I was; it started with my FB.I have an average day to day X# of folks I keep in my Fb family. It took years to identify this group of people based on positivism, humanism, and inclusion. It was OK to let family members go from Fb because I did not want the negative energy. I needed to identify what negative energy meant to me, and what did that look like via a social media outlet? What does that feel like or sound like? Bottom line, it came back to learning to trust my instinct - a woman’s intuition- if you will and trust.Literally, I am learning to trust myself to know what is good for me based on what my conscience and my spirit are telling me.Fb was a good starting point to build that trust within myself because I had a tangible method of measuring what is engaging me and how I am engaging in dialog with others. I will admit. It felt HORRIBLE to press UNFRIEND with folks who were, well, horrible in their posts and in their comments; unfriending is an intentional decision. A deliberate act to sever a connection with another person who is more than a name on the screen. Sometimes the detachment went easy and quiet and simple..BAM the person is gone and I am no longer accessible to the energy she/he is sharing publicly. Other times it was not so simple and is followed by a personal IM or a text or worse-a call.Some folks just do not want to go. Ok, I get that.And this is where the next step came into practice. Talking-communicating and holding a dialog, my daughter calls these 'difficult conversations' my son calls this 'being real'. Either way-for me, it was an exercise in courage to articulate the personal boundaries that I have which ones are being crossed.Through time, my boundary setting is preceded by conversations regarding boundaries-nothing formal-rather a series of rapport building dialog's where my boundaries are shared and clarified with folks I have identified as valuable to me for their thoughts and ideas and time and companionship.Upon reflection, I see it was about liking myself and valuing myself to be treated fairly, justly, kindly and through the lens of humanity via social media. A act of love for myself that I do not believe I understood holistically. Where I held ethos and more; however, I did not have the courage to articulate those thoughts and ideas to others because social norms for me did not permit that level of engagement or authenticity with others. I just sat back. Patiently waiting to:

A. run away.

B. ignore

C. just go w/ the flow and let it all unfold in front of me despite how I am interpreting what is happening.

C. is the worst option. As you, no 'I', was sitting by as if 'I' were a passenger in my own life vs an active member or participant actively making decisions of what I am letting into my environment.Shame on me right?No, not shame on me. I had to experience this to know now I am not sitting by and watching this thing called life go on past me and I have control of what comes in-of what I permit to come in.Dare I say I live life in a courageous manner now.A manner where I am identifying value in myself and how my surroundings are influencing me.Leaving me empty...or permitting to be filled up.