So much of our stress must come from this mentality of scarcity, which is borne of the belief that there is not enough. There is never enough time, money, energy, love, so we hunker down and protect what we do have. We have this irritability that springs from the belief that if we do not fiercely guard our space, time, energy and money, someone will come and take them from us. It’s true: people will take what you give them, and there is also this ethic of going the extra mile and forgiveness.

How can we do this? With the belief that there is enough to go around – that if you give of your time and energy and money, you will somehow receive the same – enough to live on. Now I believe we cannot say yes to everything. There is a time to say no, but how many times are we saying no out of miserliness or unforgiveness and calling it “boundaries”?