Hi Tom - welcome to Openhand. Warm greetings *give_rose*

Firstly you ask a very poignant question with regards to boundaries and psychic attack...

"When one talks of boundaries, why do they not seem to apply to those who one is close to?"

I think because you are close to them, it means they're an important part of your personal inquiry and evolution. There's an emotive connection - that if you're being honest with yourself - you can't simply ditch.

These are the maximum opportunities for growth. You're close to another, yet somehow they seem to always pull you down. What happens, I believe, is that you build a generalised consciousness landscape in which both (or more) family parties act. There's often then a 'switching off', a kind of unspoken acceptance of anything goes. Like putting on a comfy pair of old slippers - you don't question if they're going to be comfortable.

And so you're pulled into this 'comfy' state and you blindly accept what goes on, even as disrepect or dishonouring happens. Or else because someone close to you has always known you a certain way, they expect you to always be that way, so it becomes hard to change in their proximity. Inadvertently you're accepting the imposed limitation. This is where the boundaries get blurred. It's then utterly essential to step back, at least for a while, or make sure there are plenty of things you do separately that raise your own unique vibe.

The when you come back into the relationship, you have to define yourself very accurately, and compassionately require that others embrace your new expression, your new truth about who you now are. You simply don't accept the old judgments and limitations imposed upon you. This helps define the boundaries without shutting people out.

I'd like to pick up on another key thing you said...

"How much responsibility do we have to another, in order to energetically support them, whereupon they may pull from us? For that energetic support, appears to heal them, but at a compromise to ourselves. However if we are going to heal society, then some of us may need to allow others some of our light, until they are able to uncover their own."

Implied in your question, I agree, we have a great responsibility to help others in society - to give of our light. And the risk is, that can diminish ones light, because of the energy it requires to uplift.

However, from the Openhand perspective at least, it's clear that there's a group that is ascending into a higher vibrational paradigm of greater equity and justice, plus also, there's the majority who are blatantly resisting this possibility. I'm sure like all of us, you encounter them day in, day out.

This is where boundaries become so important. And where we need to watch our own distortions as energy workers. So for example, where does aligned responsibility become the burden of perceived obligation? (which clearly pulls people down). It is for each to peel away such distortion and find the authentic alignment in their own behaviours in society.

In so doing, it means we can help those who are ready to help themselves. What happens then, is that you build mutually supporting and uplifting feedback loops between you which are ultimately energising.

So it's essential to begin to make these distinctions, to find the correct boundaries in each situation. If our light is being overly depleted, then we have nothing to give!

Thanks for the very relevant and poignant questions - much love

Open *OK*