Creating and maintaining healthy boundaries is essential to maturing and establishing your identity. Learning to set healthy boundaries and enforce them is critical in your healing journey and mental well-being. Setting boundaries is a method of requesting respect and maintaining individuality in a relationship, but most importantly, it is an act of self-love.
Learning to distinguish what is within our control and what is beyond our power to change helps us understand where to create boundary lines. Establishing boundaries may feel selfish at first. Saying no to hanging out with friends when we feel overextended, telling our parents when we would like to reschedule their visit, and not sharing every intimate detail with others are all forms of setting healthy boundaries.
Agreeing to something or someone without authenticity but rather an obligation or an inability to say no can lead to resentment.
The longer resentment festers, the more likely it will lead to problems, including stress, frustration, pain, guilt, and feeling overwhelmed.
Setting boundaries can be difficult for those who weren’t raised in an environment consisting of healthy boundaries or an environment where boundaries were frequently crossed. Creating and enforcing limits requires practice, intuition, and consistency. Others may not always respect boundaries, making it even more challenging to uphold them continuously. Others can get offended, disappointed, and upset with limitations. Not keeping or having poor boundaries can lead to arguments, miscommunication, fatigue, burnout, and unhappiness.
Often, we feel guilty or unfaithful when saying no to the people closest to us, such as our parents, siblings, and close friends. But as we age and gain responsibilities, boundaries become more necessary. The resources and energy we once had begin to diminish. Deciding who and what we have time for becomes beneficial for our mental well-being and maintaining our schedules. Understanding that we no longer have boundless time and energy is part of maturing and healing. Knowing our physical and mental limitations and communicating them to others is healthy and mutually beneficial in forming relationships with others. Figuring out how much time to allot to self-care versus helping others should be incorporated into everyone’s life journey.
It’s okay to say no, hang up the phone, end the communication, or terminate the relationship when enforcing boundaries. We aren’t usually the ones that handle fixing situations that may be broken or help others at the risk of our physical or mental health. The adage goes: “Before you help others, you must first help yourself.”
No person, situation, or environment should ever rob us of tranquility.
Walking away from someone or something when it hinders your progress or healing isn’t a sign of weakness. Recognizing when something or someone requires us to sacrifice too much energy takes inner strength, and knowing when it’s time to walk away takes courage.
We can walk away from anything that disrupts our core self or mental well-being.
The people we allow into our lives should respect us and our limitations. Everyone can decide who they want to allow into their private lives and what they want to divulge about themselves. We should not have to do anything beyond what we’re comfortable with or capable of due to undefined boundaries or others ignoring our limitations. No one is allowed to terrorize our equilibrium. Every single person has the right to feel their peace.
Sip of Ambition 