Posted 3/16/2016 1:05 PM (GMT -5)
Multifacetedme -
When we walk our own paths, we need really good shoes...think of steel toed work boots with some memory foam inserts!!
The blubbering below has a purpose....it sets the background for the final advice I have to offer......hope, at a minimum, it shows you aren't alone...***my degree was in family studies, which is why my post tends to go just a wee bit long, haha**
I will be 48 this year, yet as far back as I can remember in childhood, I was always unconventional. I saw the world - humans, nature, medicine - from a completely different perspective than my peers (which is why I am loving Buhner...not even so much for the lyme books, which are excellent, but for his views and relationship with nature, like his plant intelligence book, which could be from my own journals and "beliefs" from decades ago). Who I was as a child I still am as an adult today - I steer clear of organized groups, labels and even conventional medicine...I sold everything and live cash only in a modest rv with my husband, by choice. The backlash from living such a life can be brutal - I have the battle scars to prove how hard it is to love yourself and trust yourself enough to keep...on...walking.......
I bring this up because when you don't follow the herd, you are constantly walking against the wind - and it can be exhausting. Even more so when the bonds of love, family and friends are strained due to our determination to keep walking the path that we know in our hearts is right for us. I am fortunate to have an amazing soulmate hubby - we actually read books together out loud and are devouring Buhner's Plant Intelligence currently. But I also have been divorced and faced many relationship challenges with others I love who look at me as if I am from another planet...and nothing hurts more. We want those we love to celebrate with us, not build up obstacles to trip us up.
So the only support I can offer, just based on my own life experiences, is that if we are quiet enough, we have a "knowing" inside...we know which way we are supposed to head and we need to listen. We have to stop looking outward, seeking approval from others or "fighting" to change their views or to "make them" understand. You sound like your are constantly in a position of defense, when we should be playing offense with our own health and quality of life.
I have come to a place where I feel more empathy than anger anymore - because most people I've encountered on my path just aren't able to accept such a paradigm shift...and they can respond like a cornered grizzly bear when you threaten a paradigm shift by presenting a challenge to their rigid reality. That is THEIR path - you need to stay focused on yours or your energy goes into the wrong place (external) vs using it to help you heal.
What the future holds for our relationships when we follow our paths remains to be seen. There are happy endings, there are sad endings. What will happen with certainty, however, is a change in the current unhealthy dynamic, when you quietly and confidently keep walking without engaging or defending...when you have the knowing you are walking the right direction. Your change on the inside (where the work is to be done) directly impacts the external (where the conflict lies).
I wish you nothing but peace on your path...............