
What are Boundaries?
Boundaries are the guidelines and expectations we identify for ourselves about how we’d like to be treated by others and what actions we’ll take if someone oversteps those limits.
We learn how to set boundaries as children through modeling from the adults around us and through the experiences we have growing up. What were the messages you received about saying “no”? Was your “no” respected? Did you get in trouble for saying “no” to adults? These kinds of questions can tell us a lot about the training we received about boundaries and autonomy. For a more in depth discussion about different types of boundaries and how to set them, check out this blog post about boundaries that I wrote a while back.
Typically when we think about boundaries we think about the boundaries we have with other people, but sometimes the boundaries we need to set are actually with ourselves. These boundaries are called internal boundaries. In this post you will learn what internal boundaries are and why it is important to have them.