Do you have friends or family members that make you feel energized, alive and you can’t wait to be with them? Those are the friends and family you absolutely want to keep close. But, how about those people who you hesitate to make plans with, avoid calling, and who you feel uneasy about committing to?

Nobody wants to feel this way, yet many of us feel obligated to engage with people simply because we are asked to. I personally have what I have come to understand that I’ve practiced an unhealthy loyalty to certain people without questioning “how do I feel”? and “what do I want to have happen”?. Now I am consciously working on creativeways to maintain relationships that are important to me and to allow those that aren’t serving me (and therefore the other person isn’t truly being served either) to have longer “leashes”. While I allow for distance in these relationships I have time to ask myself how it feels and I can observe how the other person handles the distance.