Teri and Tamara have done an excellent job describing what boundaries are and explaining what physical, emotional, and intellectual boundaries are. If you haven’t read their blogs from Monday and Tuesday, please do so.  Today I want to discuss spiritual boundaries.

Spiritual Boundaries are how we protect and share our spiritual beliefs. This can be confusing to some people as they ask, “How do I protect a spiritual belief?”. Protecting your spiritual beliefs can be simply deciding who you talk to about your beliefs and spiritual practices how you allow others to interact with you regarding your/their beliefs.

We all know people who feel the best way to get people to believe the way they believe is by being aggressive, judgmental, and often manipulative. These people have poor spiritual boundaries. They do not respect others spiritual boundaries. If we do not have good spiritual boundaries ourselves, it can be easy to engage with this person and get into an argument that we aren’t going to win, or even being persuaded or manipulated into their belief system that may not be best for you. To have good spiritual boundaries you won’t need to be manipulated into a belief. You will learn more about it and decide this is something important to you.

Another example of poor spiritual boundaries is when children grow into adults and feel they have to believe the way their parents believed. Not because it is what they feel is true, but because they want their parents to approve. Or if they know their parents will withdraw love from them if they don’t believe that way. These are poor spiritual boundaries.

Everyone has the right to choose their beliefs. I want to be clear that I am not saying you shouldn’t share your beliefs with others. I am saying it is your choice who you share your beliefs with and it is important how you do it. Oftentimes it can be appropriate to share our beliefs with someone and even at times they may choose to believe the same as you believe because you shared. However, we need to do this in a respectful and kind manner. We also need to be kind and respectful when we listen to others beliefs as well. This is practicing good spiritual boundaries.

*Natalie Chandler, MA, LMHC is a therapist at Imagine Hope Counseling Group. Natalie enjoys doing marriage counseling, individual counseling, and couples counseling.  We also specialize in family counseling, child, and adolescent counseling. Imagine Hope serves the Indianapolis area including the surrounding areas of Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Westfield, and Zionsville.