I love my family… I appreciate the members of my family…I only want what is best for them…I want them to be happy…I want them to thrive…Because they are my family…Just because someone is my family does not mean we have the same worldview…Doesn’t mean we believe the same things…It doesn’t mean we see situations in the same way…It doesn’t mean we understand our relationship in the same way…Because this is the case, it can cause tension in my family…It can cause friction in my relationships…There are even times in which my family members make choices that are destructive…Their choices can be destructive to our relationship…And they can be destructive to me…It is hard to be in a situation where I want what is best for my family and I don’t want to interact with some of my family members…Having direct contact with them makes my life harder…Sometimes having direct contact with them causes pain…There’s a part of me that feels like I’m failing if I try to push my family away…There’s a part of me that feels like I am a bad person for not wanting to spend time with my family…Just because they are my family it doesn’t mean that it is good for me to spend time with them…It doesn’t mean that it is good for me to engage with them…Wanting space is not bad…Wanting space is not a failing…Wanting space does not mean that I am a bad family member…It simply means I need to do what is right for me…It only means that I should be taking care of myself…In big and in small ways…I can want what is best for my family and at the same time want them to be a thousand miles away from me…I’m not a bad person for doing that…I’m not failing for feeling that…I can love someone and not want them to be around me…I can want what’s best for them and not interact with them…I need to take responsibility for myself and my life…I need to take responsibility for myself and my experience…It is OK for me to want to keep my family at a distance…Because if I am not taking responsibility for my well-being, nobody else is going to do that for me…It is OK for me to recognize that fact…I’m allowed to love my family and to love them from a distance.