Setting Healthy Boundaries

Having clear boundaries is essential to a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
—Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend
 
As artists, sometimes we’re all over the map, creatively speaking. We like to be involved in everything, with a finger in every pie. Our spirits and souls overflow with creative energy, and that energy then flows through everything we do. We like to get involved—sometimes too involved in too many things. At times, we can barely tell where we end and others begin.
That’s why we need boundaries.
Oooh. Even the word makes me cringe a bit. I’ve never been that good at setting boundaries. But I’m getting better!
Karol Ladd and Terry Ann Kelly share some challenging points about boundaries in their book The Power of a Positive Friend. They write,
 
By nature most women are people pleasers. We tend to be nurturers who want to fix situations and make everything right… we need to realize that just because we can doesn’t mean we should! 
Boundaries are not brick walls meant to keep people out of our lives; they’re simply helpful guidelines to guard us from squandering our time, talents, and treasure on the selfish demands and whims of others.”61
            As creative people, we know that setting appropriate boundaries remains crucial to our ability to stay healthy and inspired. On his website, fine artist Steve Henderson writes,
 
“I don’t handle a high stress lifestyle very well. For years, I vaguely thought that there was something wrong with this inability, but as I age, like a wine, I realize that perhaps I’ve got something going here. We frequently comment that a wine or cheese mellows with age, but the very word 'mellows' implies serenity, balance, equilibrium— not frenetic energy, a wild and constant shaking of the bottle.
As an artist, my stock in trade is the ability to concentrate, to see things on a deeper level, to determine the best way to bring out those hidden elements subtly, in layers. I can’t do this when my mind is fractured.
Don’t get me wrong. I live in the 21st century too, and as bucolic and pastoral as Dayton, Washington, is, I still have bills, kids, yard work, and an extensive Absolutely-Must-Be-Done-Today list. But I work hard to make sure there’s plenty of white space around my pages.”
White space. Margins... in which God can write. How do your boundaries look today?