you’ll have a real choice about whether to continue relating to them or not. You won’t be coming from a place of neediness and shame, and will be able to set better boundaries. Nobody can predict exactly what form your relationship with them will take. You may find that you can love them for who they are, or you may find that you don’t actually enjoy their company and choose not to spend time with them. You may find that you can set effective boundaries. Who knows?
I’ll save this for future reference.
Right now I feel cutting myself from my parents from my perspective would be a punishment for them (and I know mother would not care, so it would be in vain—yesterday we were in the same room and as an experiment I tried to not talk first but look available to conversation. She didn’t even say “hello” or “I didn’t expect you here, why did you come?”). I have too much grudge yet to have a real choice.
A grudge is what the algorithm for “they owe me and I think I can collect via social pressure” feels like from the inside. This implies that you still believe:
They owe you something, and
It’s possible to collect
Both of these statements are false, but it’s easier to start with the second one. Admit the truth: barring a miracle, you are never going to collect this “debt”, because it’s not one your parents will ever acknowledge. Indeed, I would guess that if someone held a gun to their heads and insisted they repent, they’d be like, “What are you talking about? We didn’t do anything to her!”
When you finally admit to yourself that this is true, there won’t be a grudge any more, because the grudge is nothing more than your brain’s insistence that you should be able to collect, in denial of the fact that you can’t collect. Use the Litany of Gendlin and the Litany of Tarski here, or the questions from The Work of Byron Katie, which is particularly effective at resolving grudges and judgments directed at other people.
One of the things Byron Katie sometimes says about these kinds of judgments is that in order to free yourself, you have to want to know the truth, more than you want to be right, or than you want to get whatever it is from that person. The truth will set you free, but first it’s going to annoy the hell out of you. ;-)
I’ll save this for future reference.
Right now I feel cutting myself from my parents from my perspective would be a punishment for them (and I know mother would not care, so it would be in vain—yesterday we were in the same room and as an experiment I tried to not talk first but look available to conversation. She didn’t even say “hello” or “I didn’t expect you here, why did you come?”). I have too much grudge yet to have a real choice.
A grudge is what the algorithm for “they owe me and I think I can collect via social pressure” feels like from the inside. This implies that you still believe:
They owe you something, and
It’s possible to collect
Both of these statements are false, but it’s easier to start with the second one. Admit the truth: barring a miracle, you are never going to collect this “debt”, because it’s not one your parents will ever acknowledge. Indeed, I would guess that if someone held a gun to their heads and insisted they repent, they’d be like, “What are you talking about? We didn’t do anything to her!”
When you finally admit to yourself that this is true, there won’t be a grudge any more, because the grudge is nothing more than your brain’s insistence that you should be able to collect, in denial of the fact that you can’t collect. Use the Litany of Gendlin and the Litany of Tarski here, or the questions from The Work of Byron Katie, which is particularly effective at resolving grudges and judgments directed at other people.
One of the things Byron Katie sometimes says about these kinds of judgments is that in order to free yourself, you have to want to know the truth, more than you want to be right, or than you want to get whatever it is from that person. The truth will set you free, but first it’s going to annoy the hell out of you. ;-)