Books : Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No, to Take Control of Your Life

• Safe People: How to Find Relationships That Are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren't
• Changes That Heal: How to Understand the Past to Ensure a Healthier Future
• Boundaries in Marriage
• Boundaries with Kids: When to Say Yes, How to Say No
• Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No: Workbook
• see more

• Health, Family & Lifestyle - Subjects - Books - Practical & Motivational
• Health, Family & Lifestyle - Subjects - Books - General AAS
• Subjects - Books - General AAS
• Religion & Spirituality - Subjects - Books - Inspirational
• Subjects - Books - General

John Townsend offer biblically-based answers to these and other tough questions, showing us how to set healthy boundaries with our parents, spouses, children, friends, co-workers, and even ourselves.

From the Publisher:
Synopsis:
While co-dependency was the buzzword of the 1980s, boundaries may be the word for the 1990s. According to authors and clinical psychologists, Henry Cloud and John Townsend, a boundary is defined as one’s personal property line and delineates those things for which he or she is responsible. The premise of their book, Boundaries, and its accompanying workbook, is that a great number of psychological, spiritual, and relational disorders have boundary conflicts at their core. This Gold Medallion award-winning book seeks to present a biblical treatment of boundaries, identifies how boundaries are developed and how they become disrupted, illustrates misconceptions of their function and purpose, targets boundary conflicts, and gives a program for developing and maintaining healthy limits. Boundaries affect all areas of our lives: · Physical boundaries help us determine who may touch us, how, and when. · Mental boundaries give us freedom to have our own thoughts and opinions. · Emotional boundaries help us deal with our own emotions and disengage us from the harmful, manipulative emotions of others. · Spiritual boundaries help us distinguish God’s will from our own and give us renewed awe for our Creator. The Boundaries Workbook, available separately, provides practical, non-theoretical exercises that will help set healthy boundaries with parents, spouses, children, freidns, co-workers, and even yourself.

From the Back Cover:
Having clear boundaries is essential to a healthy, balanced lifestyle. A boundary is a personal property line that marks those things for which we are responsible. In other words, boundaries define who we are and who we are not. Boundaries impact all areas of our lives: Physical boundaries help us determine who may touch us and under what circumstances -- Mental boundaries give us the freedom to have our own thoughts and opinions -- Emotional boundaries help us to deal with our own emotions and disengage from the harmful, manipulative emotions of others -- Spiritual boundaries help us to distinguish God's will from our own and give us renewed awe for our Creator -- Often, Christians focus so much on being loving and unselfish that they forget their own limits and limitations. When confronted with their lack of boundaries, they ask: - Can I set limits and still be a loving person? - What are legitimate boundaries? - What if someone is upset or hurt by my boundaries? - How do I answer someone who wants my time, love, energy, or money? - Aren't boundaries selfish? - Why do I feel guilty or afraid when I consider setting boundaries? Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend offer biblically-based answers to these and other tough questions, showing us how to set healthy boundaries with our parents, spouses, children, friends, co-workers, and even ourselves.

About the Author:
Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend are popular speakers, and cohosts of the nationally broadcast New Life Live! radio program. They are best-selling coauthors of several books, including Boundaries with Kids, The Mom Factor, Safe People, Twelve "Christian" Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy, and the Gold Medallion Award-winning Boundaries.;Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend are popular speakers, and cohosts of the nationally broadcast New Life Live! radio program. They are best-selling coauthors of several books, including Boundaries with Kids, The Mom Factor, Safe People, Twelve "Christian" Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy, and the Gold Medallion Award-winning Boundaries.

Average Rating:

Rating: - Drawing a good line in religious life
A very kind, down-to-earth book - the best kind of Christian counseling for managing relations, obligations, caring and abuse. Where religion commonly promotes unlimited demands on people, Cloud and Townsend show humane limits based on respect for both ourselves and others. And they firmly challenge any who feel it spiritual to blame the victim in cases of emotional abuse. On the way, they question many boundaries we draw in our lives, urging open consideration of what is actually helpful:

"Christians often have a warped way of looking at work. Unless someone is working 'in the ministry', they see his work as secular. However, this view of work distorts the biblical picture. All of us -- not only full-time ministers -- have gifts ... Read More:

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Rating: - Enlightening
Having taken my time reading through this excellent book, I completed it feeling so much better for understanding some of the situations I have recently been faced with. So many of the examples and so much of the advice given, made me feel as though I was sitting in "the consulting room". I would highly recommend this book to anyone, whether they are under pressure or leading an "apparently" organised lifestyle - so much to be gained in implementing this guidance.

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Rating: - Life changing
This is a life-changing book, and a classic. I thnk the main message of the book can be summarised very simply: I need to understand where my boundaries are; take responsibility for the things within my own boundaries; and allow other people to take responsibility for the things within their boundaries.

Several aspects of the book can be quite annoying.

* It is American, with the cultural assumptions and norms that this implies.

* It is very Christian, with many references to Biblical stories and providing chapter and verse references to most of the quotes. This is not a problem for me, but I suspect it will limit the accessibility of the book for prople who are not evangelical Christians, which is ... Read More:

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Rating: - A 'Must-Read'
I can honestly say that this book has really changed my life. God was on my case about reading it for several months beforehand and once I had, it opened my eyes to things I that only heard about or guessed at but had not really known. Personally, I think that the principles within it should be incorporated into our school curriculums. There would, I believe, be much less miscommunication, crime and heartache if we learnt these things early on in life! I highly recommend it!

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Rating: - a must-read!
An excellent book to read if you want to dramatically improve your relationships!