How Setting Boundaries Can Improve Your Wellbeing

Boundaries are guidelines to helping you feel better in your body by managing your energy, feeling safe and supporting your overall wellbeing.

As an ambitious soul, who is busy and working and doing many, many things like having a career, running your own business, taking care of kids, family and extracurricular activities; you are consumed by the things that you do.

You want to do it all right! There is nothing wrong with that, it makes you feel good. But sometimes we can push ourselves way too much and do too many things. You might try and do it all and that might work great for a week or so but then you will feel it in your body.

You start to feel overwhelmed, stressed and you might even push yourself to the point of burnout. Then there is no other way then forced rest to recuperate and so that you can get back at it.

I know you can relate because I have seen this in my own life.

That is why it is so important to set boundaries.

Boundaries help you:

• Manage Stress
• Take care of your own wellbeing
• Supports you at a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level

What are boundaries?

They are just guidelines. They help you to feel at your best, manage energy and support you in being able to show up in your life.

Boundaries are not bad. A lot of us think that we have to do, do, do but we know that we just can’t physically do it all. You can’t simply do everything all the time. You need to take time for yourself. Boundaries are needed to better support yourself and your life.

You are here to really enjoy your life. Yes, I know you love the work that you do, but you are also here to experience some fun and enjoyment in your life.

The importance of boundaries:

• Self-care and self-respect
• Communication
• Identify how you want to be treated - there should be an equal exchange of energy. You can’t be someone who always gives, gives, gives or always takes takes takes. There needs to be a balance.
• Support your own time and energy

Areas to consider setting boundaries around:

• Work - Many of us have lifestyles that allow us to be home more than we ever have been. Thanks to the last year and a half. You might find yourself working from home or even being a stay at home parent. When this happens, your home life and work life can often blend together.

  You will want to set boundaries around work time and home time. For instance, Identify your working hours, checking email, checking messenger, etc. Then make sure that you are able to close things down and when it is home time - you are more focused and present and able to do the things you love.

  You can’t be everything to everyone and do things all the time. You have to set limits and boundaries to protect yourself and your own energy.

• Time and energy - Where are you spending your time? Where is your energy like?

  If you are feeling the need to refocus or are feeling stressed or overwhelm, it is a good idea that you need to look at possibly setting boundaries. Specially if there are things that you are doing that you don’t need to be doing.

  Also look at the things that are pulling you down. You might need to let some of those things go.

  Example would be social media - it is great connecting but how are you feeling when you use it? How much time are you on there. Set limits so that you can do more of the things you love.

• Relationships - Is there balance in the relationship or is it one sided? Re-evalutate how you are spending your time with people. How are you feeling being around them? You might need to consider setting some boundaries.

  You definitely don’t want one sided relationships. There needs to be a balance.

• Self-Care - So important. I always say that if you are not taking care of yourself first, how are you going to show up and take care of others or show up at your best and do your best work?

  What's the boundaries that you have for self-care. For myself, it is a non-negotiable to get up in the morning, workout and do my intentional practice. This is where I align my energy to feel good in my body. That helps me feel better and get my day started right. That is just something that I set for myself.

These are just some areas to think about that maybe you might want to set boundaries around.

Get clear about setting boundaries and implementing them:

• Get clear on your priorities - What are your priorities and set boundaries around them?

  For most of us it is work because you need to make a living. But for most of us, we love what we do. Then maybe family time and relationships.

• Communication - communicate those boundaries to yourself first and then to others

• Follow your intuition - It is OK to say, “No!” Allow yourself to weave between the lines.

  Let’s say that you set boundaries today and they work for you for a month. You are feeling really good in your body and in your life. You then want to set some different boundaries because you want to expand and open up to doing more. Change your boundaries. Nothing is set in stone. You are human and are meant to ebb and flow. Do what works for you.

The most important thing to remember is that YOU are in control of your own life. YOU get to CHOOSE what you want to do.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, if you are feeling stressed, then it’s probably a good idea to look at your boundaries and where your energy is going.

You will want to get grounded within yourself, get comfortable within yourself by setting boundaries so that you can then start to feel better in your body.

Leave me a comment below (yes, you can sign up for a free account) if you already have healthy boundaries or is this an area that you might need to bring more attention to.