‘Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others.’
–Brene Brown.
From escalated arguments to conflicting opinions, it can be very challenging to learn how to set healthy boundaries with family. At the risk of damaging a relationship or undervaluing yourself, in this article, you’ll learn 11 tips that will help you voice your concerns, enhance your self-worth and receive more fulfillment with each interaction to create a functioning family unit.
What Are Boundaries?
Boundaries are the physical and emotional limits you set for others to follow. They help define what is important to you and your threshold of managing negative energy, situations, and stimuli.
While boundaries aren’t one size fits all as they vary depending on a variety of factors, there are six types of boundaries that help you filter what is acceptable and unacceptable in your life:
- Physical boundaries regard your personal space, body, and privacy.
- Emotional boundaries involve your feelings and what you’re comfortable sharing.
- Intellectual boundaries concern your thoughts, beliefs, and ideas.
- Sexual boundaries involve your intimacy, consent, and rules about safety.
- Financial or material boundaries are your possessions and finances.
- Time boundaries involve setting limits regarding how you value and prioritize your time.
Each type of boundary helps you separate your thoughts, feelings, and actions from those around you and maintain your self-worth.
Why Is It Important to Set Boundaries in Relationships?
Learning how to set healthy boundaries with family provides a magnitude of benefits. It teaches you about yourself, how to respond when someone crosses your limits and teaches others how to interact with you.
When you align yourself with your boundaries and enforce them regardless of the thoughts and opinions of others, you learn how to connect to your most authentic self.
Boundaries exist to serve our self-understanding, who we are and value what makes us unique. When you have a strong concept of self-identity and self-respect, you can receive rewarding relationships that enhance your growth and development, even in dysfunctional family dynamics.
How To Set Healthy Boundaries with Family: 11 Tips
1. Evaluate your boundaries
Reflect on past scenarios where you felt upset, frustrated, or uncomfortable. These feelings could be the result of a family member crossing your boundaries. Take the time to evaluate what is important to you so you can clearly define how to establish healthy guidelines.
2. Know your triggers
Triggers are external situations that produce uncomfortable emotional responses and feelings. Knowing yours, especially when managing dysfunction within your family, is key to maintaining balance. A trigger could be a sibling minimizing your pain or a parent questioning how you choose to raise your children. Identify your triggers and how best you can take care of yourself when they arise.
3. Value your time
Your time is a precious commodity, and it’s more than acceptable for you to choose how you spend it and with whom. If a family member is causing you stress or agitating unhealed trauma, consider your needs and take appropriate action. When you prioritize your emotional and mental health, your relationships with your family members and yourself will both improve.
4. Focus on the positive relationships
Families in turmoil or dysfunction may disagree with your decision to set boundaries and break unhealthy patterns. Instead of becoming angry, try to empathize with their fear of change and surrender your ego. The way you choose to grow may not be equal to theirs. Seek support from a family member you do have a close bond with or even a friend or co-worker for empathy.
5. Be clear about your needs
Be clear and communicate your needs before you get upset about someone crossing your boundaries. You can’t expect people to understand your needs if you don’t express them. They might not like your answer, but that’s okay. When you identify your limits, it’s within your right to communicate them as often as you need.
6. Accept them as they are
This tip takes a great deal of patience. The truth is some people aren’t ready to grow. When you accept this, it helps you release yourself from unmet expectations and consistent pain. Accepting someone for who they are doesn’t mean you have to withstand the maltreatment. It means you can still prioritize your inner growth, decide a better path for yourself and respond accordingly.
7. You can only control your response
There is also no easy way to say difficult truths. Some people will poorly react when they hear something they don’t want to receive. It is not your decision to hold back simply out of fear of hurting their feelings, but you can control your delivery and reaction.
8. Listen and respond
When others are honest with us, we sometimes dismiss them to hide our discomfort. Situations will arise where you might not like what your family member says, but try to listen with an open mind and accept their feedback as a signal to grow. Building trust within relationships also only involves a willingness to improve yourself.
9. Don’t bottle your emotions
Pretending to be unbothered by a family member’s reaction or opinion isn’t expressing kindness to yourself or your family. Withholding your emotions leads to passive-aggressive statements, angry outbursts, and more damage. Being truthful about your feelings may be difficult at first, but it will lead to growth, healing, and breaking intergenerational trauma.
10. Your boundaries can evolve
You are not the same person you were yesterday, and you certainly won’t be the same person next week. It’s okay to communicate these changing boundaries within your family dynamics. For instance, practice saying “I am no longer the same person, and my needs are different. Please respect them”. Being honest about your evolving boundaries means you value your worth, healing, and relationships.
11. Give yourself grace
Despite your best efforts, you are human, which means you will make mistakes, stumble, and fail. You are still a work in progress, and you deserve to give yourself grace even when learning how to set healthy boundaries with family. It’s okay to have a bad day, and it’s okay to not get everything right.
Remember that enforcing boundaries is a form of self-care that protects, respects, and honors who you are and what you have to offer. Take care of the most important relationship in your life, the one you have with yourself. You are worth it.
This post contains affiliate links.
If you’re trying to figure out how to set healthy boundaries with family and found these ideas helpful, please share this post on Pinterest!
And if you’re looking for more tips to help you live your best life everyday, please follow our Mental Health board where we share all kinds of great ideas we find each day!
