Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Intruding my personal space

I'm a physical person. Hugging and kissing is part of who I am. What I don't like though, is people intruding my personal space. During my au pair year in the States, all of us girls were taking Self defence classes, to protect ourselves from unwanted individuals. One day we practised on how to protect our personal space. I had never thought about that before, although I knew I didn't particularly like some people to come that close to me. This was about physical closeness. You know, when someone stands too close to you or touches you in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable. The teacher told us it was okay to tell that person to step back and not touch you in that manner. Us Belgians are not used to saying anything like that, because we might offend the other. Isn't that silly?? Because they do offend us by intruding our space..

Physically intruding one's space is one thing, mentally intruding that space is something else. That might even feel like a threat. You no longer feel safe in your own environment, because there's always someone watching over your shoulder. It makes you feel awkward and you become a suspicious personality. It must be horrible to live your life followed by a shadow you don't want to be there. Some people have no idea how their filtering into your life feels threatening. You could say they should know better, but some people just aren't smart enough to get the message..

No comments: