How To Set Boundaries In Relationships

I’ve mentioned in past articles to set boundaries, but I’ve not gotten into how to set them. Every individual’s boundaries will vary depending on what you want, your emotional state and what your core values are. The Healthline website has an article called, “The No BS Guide to Protecting Your Emotional Space” by Jennifer Chesak that lists better self-esteem, the conservation of emotional energy and more independence and agency as benefits of boundaries. Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own choices.

People want to have a strong connection with their partners, but may allow things from their partners out of “love” and may not be aware of the red flags of boundary infringement. If we allow continual patterns of boundary infringement, we are subject to feeling vulnerable, ill at ease and less confident about ourselves.

We may be in a relationship that is toxic to us and not even know it. The Healthline website lists in the same article as mentioned above that there are “TMI Red Flags” in regards to oversharing. If we don’t recognize these signs and allow these things to repeatedly happen, we are not empowering ourselves or others. We may be overstepping someone’s boundaries if we continually notice that we are doing multiple “TMI Red Flags.”