Setting Healthy Boundaries in Relationships

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Whether you’re dealing with romantic partners, family, friends, or coworkers, maintaining healthy boundaries can help you strengthen relationships, avoid unhealthy connections, and improve your self-esteem and overall well-being.        

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What are healthy boundaries?

You might hear the word “boundaries” and imagine walls that separate you from other people

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Boundaries can include restrictions on physical actions, such as asking a roommate or partner not to look through your phone or not to interrupt when you’re working from home.

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Physical boundaries

help keep you comfortable and safe, not just when you’re dealing with strangers, but also when you’re interacting with those closest to you

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Sexual boundaries

could involve anything from asking for consent before being physically intimate to checking in with your partner’s comfort level during sex.

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Emotional boundaries

ensure that others are respectful of your emotional well- being and internal comfort level. When setting an emotional boundary,

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Material/financial boundaries

Rather than eating lunch at your desk or alone in your home, head out to a restaurant, coffee shop, or shopping mall food court

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extend to your belongings, such as money, clothing, car, or home. If you’re a charitable person, you might have a hard time saying “no” to people who want to borrow items

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Time boundaries

allow you to focus on your priorities at work and in your personal life without feeling crowded by other people’s needs and wants.

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