Everyone need boundaries and everyone has one. But not everyone set the pace for these boundaries. Establishing boundaries in a relationship make your partner know you better and understand their limits towards your person.
A boundary is an imaginary demarcation line that is drawn to delineate one’s personal limit or edge. In a relationship, boundaries indicate certain entities that you are uncomfortable with. This enable your partner know you better and understand how best you like to be treated.
Certain relationship boundaries such as Physical, Mental, Emotional, Sexual, Religious, Intellectual, Spiritual and Financial boundaries are all important for the well-being of a relationship. According to psychotherapist Sharon Martin, “Boundaries improve relationships by creating clear expectations and responsibilities.
However, Discussing these boundaries with your partner can be a bit uncomfortable but it only get better when clarity is made and a mutual understanding is created afterwards.
Setting out healthy relationship boundaries enable your relationship thrive better by creating certain entities such as:
1 .Connection
On the contrary to what we all assume, marking out healthy boundaries in a relationship is not an intent to set barriers that keep you separated from your partner. Rather, it is a concept that intends to get you more connected to your partner and strengthen the bond between you two despite the diverse preferences in how you both want to associate yourself with one another.
Boundary is a form of preference one make base on their what gives them comfort and discomfort. Understanding the boundaries of your partner keep you both strongly connected to each other.
2. Self care
Boundary setting is a form of self care. Conversing these boundaries to with partner enable you two to understand your limitations towards each other. This particularly help you improve mentally as an individual.
Discussing your boundaries with your partner and Knowing that there is someone who understands the certain things that doesn’t sit well with you and the extent to things that you can take is a great relief because your partner will make an effort to keep within the limits. As a result of this, your partner tends to provide you with the essential mental support you may require.
3. Self esteem
Mapping out your boundaries is one significant way to boost your self esteem. More like offloading your burdens, the moment you decide to talk about your boundaries with your partner, you feel less vulnerable around them.
Boundaries enable you to take charge of your life by giving you a distinct identity as a person and this gives you the ability to thrive independently in the relationship.
More so, Legibly mapped out boundaries gives broad clarity of your personality to your partner and this consequently enable your partner to find it easy to accept your personality. This acceptance helps improve your self esteem.
4. Emotional Balance
In a relationship, boundaries generates emotional balance. Emotional balance is a way through which feelings, sentiments, passion or reaction are made stable.
When boundaries are communicated, it is made easy for emotions to become controlled and made balance. This also creates room for flexibility in the behavior of both people in a relationship. Flexibility enables one to make changes and control the emotional balance of the relationship. For example; Your partner has a habit of clubbing and constantly requests that you go together, while you on the other hand utterly dislike both loud music and crowd. Discussing this discomfort and how it affects you to your partner makes him understand better to stop crossing the limits.
That said, setting out boundaries also help you escape from the shackles of codependency and creates the emotional balance for individuality.
5. Openness
In every healthy relationship, openness is paramount. The ability to freely express your internal fears, vulnerability, dislikes and weaknesses in your relationship is what openness is all about. Setting out boundaries is one significant way to create openness in a relationship.
When you are able to freely express your boundaries, it creates the opportunity to comfortably open up on every other thing that matters to you in the relationship.
6. Tolerance
Expression of boundaries enables the other party to have tolerance towards the things that gives you discomfort.
However, for a person to be able to tolerate you, effective communication is also paramount. Knowing how best to express yourself to your partner awakens his empathy towards you that leads him to tolerance.
Once you freely express your boundaries, it becomes easier for both of you to tolerate each other’s boundaries.
Taking everything into account, boundaries should only be set solely to enable efficient coexistence and not otherwise. However, It is best not to be too strict with relationship boundaries and to always be considerate of the other person while setting out your boundaries in other to avoid unnecessary challenges in your relationship.
