avena -> RE: Have you ever been 'forced' or coerced into going too far? (9/26/2011 12:07:34 AM)
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No, I haven't been forced or coerced into going beyond my safety zones...but I've felt exactly like you described - quote:
I LIKE TO PLEASE MY MASTER (I also like some hinted level of force or coercion in my M/s relations). So when he would ask me to do something I didn't like... I would bend over backwards to TRY to be at least OK with it on some level because I wanted to please him. I'm also very familiar with not having very well defined limits. Through various discussions, usually resulting from an incident where I felt like he was asking me for something I couldn't give him, which then degenerated into me going into full out panic mode...we have organized several 'categories' for my limits. There are, of course, the absolute hard limits. These are the things that no way in a million years would I ever consent to, no matter how mind blown I was. Kana listed a few good hard limits in a previous post. I have others, of course, but in the grand scheme of things, the number of limits in this category is pretty small. Next down the scale are the 'never tried them, don't want to try them, the very thought of trying them sends me straight into panic mode...but you never know, because people change with time...ask me again in a few years' limits. For me, most of these items will probably never actually make it off this list, but I'm not going to rule them out just because, right now, they scare the shit out of me. There are a lot of things I do now, and enjoy, that the mere thought of doing 10 years ago would have scared the shit of out me. Again, there are a relatively small number of limits in this category. D likes to tease about these limits because he knows that I'll take it as just teasing. I trust him not to push me too far. Next is the 'never tried it, not all that interested in trying it or am ambivalent towards trying it, but if the circumstances are right, i might be willing to go there for you' limits. This is one of the largest limits categories for us, mostly because there's a lot of things that I haven't experienced yet. Some of the things that are high on D's 'wants' list happen to be in this category, so it's one that gets pushed, on a mental level, fairly often. He assesses my responses and decides whether it's time to take things to the next level, or whether he should back off for a while yet. And last, there's the 'tried it, didn't like it, being pushed too hard here could have negative consquences, but I'm open to being pushed because I know it's important to you' category. The main difference between this and the previous category is the fact that I actually have tried these things, and I know my response to them. Under a situation of trust, I can usually repress that response, but I can't always control it. D is well aware of this, and is prepared to have me freak out completely if he pushes any of these items. But for every time I can't handle it and freak out, there's at least 12 or so other times where I can handle it, and it turns out wonderfully. This and the previous category are the ones that are rapidly losing items, since we keep working through new things for me, or working at old things. My advice to you...is don't worry about having a hard and fast set of limits. The whole hard limit/soft limit thing was too limited (ha!) for us, so we expanded on it...and it helped. It may seem a little anal to some people, but it made it a lot easier for me to slot something into a category when I encountered something new...and I didn't have to explain WHY it fit in that category, to myself or to anyone else. That's just where it fit. I had a friend who helped me flesh out my original lists. He sat me down, told me to close my eyes, and then gave me a scenario to imagine. Then, based on my mental reaction to that scenario, I was able to put it in the right category for me. Having already thought through a lot of different scenarios meant that I don't get blindsided by something I'm not sure about that often. I already know if this is something I should be slowing down or talking to D about, so I don't have to question my own judgement. And having the list is a great tool for discussing things with D. It worked for me.
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