Do you live in a bubble?

I've spent the last 3 years in a bubble. The bubble allowed me to run two start up businesses. The bubble also created tension in my personal relationships.

From my perspective, my bubble is a deliberate boundary that preserves my energy and time. Others have expressed disappointment that my bubble keeps me from spending as much time with them as they'd like. I believe they interpret my bubble as intentional rejection. I also believe this is because they are in their own bubble.

Our bubble is a lens from which we see the world. The bubble is the lens that everything we do, think, say goes through before it is received by the rest of the world. And it is also the lens through which we receive all of our incoming data.

Here are two examples of bubbles - do you think they are conscious bubbles?

Think of a person who needs to relate everything you say back to something in their own life. You tell a story and before you have finished telling it, they recount a "better" story to illustrate whatever point you are trying to make. How does this make you feel?

Now think of when you've made changes in your life. Have you needed to make space for these changes? Was anything crowded-out in order for you to accomplish your own changes? How did this impact other people? Did you think about the unintended consequences of your changes?

Bubble lenses, like our vision can be distorted.

Bubbles can be conscious and unconscious.

Thin bubbles can be popped.

Thick bubbles can be melted.

Porous bubbles can turn into plastic bubbles over time.

Bubbles, like thoughts can be constructive, destructive, conscious, unconscious, let go of, grasped on to. They are neither positive or negative - unless we see them as such. We can be surrounded by multiple bubbles at the same time, protecting/smothering different aspects of ourselves.