The Four Levels of Witnessing: Pt. 3- Peer-to-Peer Relationships

Relationships with friends, co-workers, and extended family are typically easier to navigate. We have more space between us usually and with this comes natural boundaries that stem from inherited societal and familial standards. It is much easier to keep a friend or co-worker at a distance when it comes down to internal struggles, biases, or differences that appear in our lives.

In these relationships, we have the ability to selectively assert what pieces of ourselves we want to put out there to share our vulnerabilities and what we can keep to ourselves and our inner circles. Our subjective values and things we Love can be synergistic with these friends in which we typically bond over but we aren't dependent on as many of them being in alignment as we are in our significant relationships.

Our fears that we choose to share as well may differ greatly in which we unconsciously exhibit a more gracious understanding of their individuality and unique journey and in turn provide them with a deeper level of freedom than the standards that we hold for our significant others in close relationships to.

Excerpt from, Love Over Fear: A Foundation for Autonomy