Boundaries with yourself refers to the idea of drawing a line between what is okay for you and what is not okay.
Sometimes we don’t know where the boundary needs to be until we cross it and we feel angry with ourselves, disappointed or ashamed. Boundaries with yourself and others keeps us healthy and prevents burnout.
Here is an example of learning a healthy personal boundary. Let’s imagine work is crazy. It is an especially busy time of the year and all hands are on deck. Over a two-week period, you find yourself online answering emails later and later at night. At first this is fine, and you find yourself fast asleep by 10pm and getting a good 8 hours sleep. After two weeks you find you are still answering emails at 12pm and then you are struggling to get to sleep. The last few nights you have fallen asleep at 3am and are getting 3-4 hours of sleep per night.
This is time to PAUSE. This is time to re-think what you are doing and set up some healthy boundaries with work and with yourself. If you continue like this, you are going to end up with burnout.
Boundaries help us to have respect and trust in ourselves. It can be helpful to write down our boundaries and carry them around with us as a reminder. They are like little promises to yourself that lead to greater self-respect and self-trust.
What boundaries do you find helpful?
