The art of distancing a "lover", or good friend in an orbital space. Not too far, not too close. When they get too far, you pull them back in, when they get too close, you push them back out into the "safe zone". This keeps the person in your life, exactly where you want them.
The bitch wants to get married, and I don't. The sex is great, but I'm just not ready for commitment. "Safe Zoning" her would be to ignore or be non-committal to her emails and phone calls and when you've totally pissed her off, send her a dozen roses, fuck her, and repeat the cycle.
A reference to Super Mario Brothers in which a player would skip several levels in order to achieve the ultimate objective of saving the princess. More generally, it refers to someone who wants to achieve a goal more easily than he otherwise could by stacking the odds in his favor or by skipping steps that would ordinarily be required.