- Physical boundaries help us determine who may touch us and under what circumstances.
- Mental boundaries give us the freedom to have our own thoughts and opinions.
- Emotional boundaries help us deal with our own emotions and disengage from the harmful, manipulative emotions of others.
- Spiritual boundaries help us to distinguish God’s will from our own and give us renewed awe for our Creator.
Signs that you need to set some boundaries:
When you find it difficult to say “no” to others, do things because you feel guilty or obligated, try to please others even at the expense of what’s best for you, or if you don’t express your thoughts and feelings when someone upsets you, you are putting yourself last and putting others first and THAT doesn’t benefit either parties.
How to set boundaries:
Setting boundaries means that you have to take ownership of your life. In essence you need to show up for yourself, love yourself and learn when to say “Yes” and how to say “No”.
Boundaries are about allowing good things in and keeping bad things out.
Some people have it in reverse where they constantly allow bad things in like hurt, abuse, misuse and keep good things out – like healing.
When you set boundaries, you will deal with angry, upset people and this will most likely make you feel anxious or fearful.
The main thing when setting boundaries is choosing LOVE. Love for yourself and love for others. What I mean by that is when you set clear boundaries, you will experience freedom from feeling abused, used, disrespected, etc. In turn I believe that you love for others will also grow because you will have healthy relationships.
In closing I want to ask you to do two things:
1. Respect other people’s boundaries.
2. Choose three boundaries to implement into your life over the next two weeks. It can be simple things like not chatting on your phone till 2am in the morning, but communicating your need for sleep and informing others that you will not be chatting after 10pm at night anymore.
That’s it!