The human being is a limited being, it has boundaries. It cannot go indefinitely without rest, water, food, shelter and the like. There are also many boundaries that we must have in order to have any quality of life.
Sometimes our relationships with others challenge these boundaries and that can be good, for it helps us see what our real boundaries are. But sometimes, probably more often than not, those relationships challenge our boundaries and push us beyond what is healthy for us. This not only hurts us but it hurts all the others around us, for we are being an example of someone who does not care about our own health enough to stand up for our boundaries.
It takes courage to be honest. We first have to be honest with ourselves before we can be honest with others.
Courage is the manifestation of love. We cannot really love another if we do not first love ourselves. If we are feeling that respect, caring, and consideration that is love then it is easier to find that courage to be honest with ourselves and others. But if we lose touch with that self respect our courage will wane and our health and relationships will suffer.
Sometimes we do not want to even think about standing up for ourselves, even standing up against our own desires that take us beyond our healthy boundaries. Getting back in touch with our self respect helps us find the courage we need to be both honest with ourselves and with others.
I have been challenged to be honest with myself many times in my life. It is probably more accurate to say that I am always being challenged to be honest with first myself and then with others. Whenever I did not respect my boundaries it would lead to an unhealthy life. That might start with unhealthy relationships but eventually it would manifest into an unhealthy mind and body.
That unhealthy mind is the first symptom that some place I am not respecting my boundaries. I would get frustrated or angry or depressed; all symptoms that I was not being honest with myself and probably not being honest with others. Eventually these unhealthy emotions manifest into the body as disease of some sort.
Often we resist being honest with others about our boundaries for fear of their reaction to what we say. They might get angry or refuse even to listen to us tell them about your boundaries. Eventually we will have to confront out fears and deal with this lack of honesty or our relationships and our personal health will suffer.
We also often forget that we are here to inspire one another. When we challenge ourselves to be honest with both ourselves and others, even if that causes temporary disorder in our lives, we are demonstrating to those others (and ourselves) what love is and what a healthy relationship both with ourselves and others looks like. This can be the greatest gift we can give others, even if it starts out in conflict by our insistence on speaking our truth and respecting our boundaries.
In order to be a inspiring light to others we have to develop the willingness or courage to be honest with others about our boundaries that will keep us healthy of body and mind. This takes first being aware and FEELING how much we love our healthy life.