The ways in which setting boundaries allows us to separate ourselves from challenging situations and proceed intentionally are plentiful and include:
Preventing Over-Commitment: Knowing what you can handle and how much of it you can handle goes a long way in avoiding being overwhelmed. Limiting responsibility greatly reduces burn-out and the feeling of being stuck in challenging situations.
Building Emotional Distance: The thing that makes the challenges we face in life so difficult to confront sometimes are the emotions that come with them: anger, fear and sadness. These are all valid and often unavoidable emotions we have to experience in life but that doesn’t mean they have to consume us. There are so many issues worth caring about, issues that people should care about, but it’s impossible for one single person to solve every problem in the world. Simply acknowledging that not every problem is yours to solve and detaching yourself from the ones that are not aligned with your immediate priorities opens up more space for the problems most pressing in your life.
Practicing Self-Care: The concept of self-care gets touted as the magic fix to all of the stresses of life which can make the suggestion of it seem hollow. But the truth is that the prioritization of your physical and mental health has a profound impact on your ability to handle the stress that accompanies challenging situations. Checking in with yourself regularly to ensure you are doing okay and not on the brink of collapse, What does self-care look like to you? Is it pauisng to breathe or finding joy in movement or a creative outlet?
While that wasn’t an exhaustive list of different ways to set boundaries and how they give you the power to handle challenging situations, it is a good place to start. Where are you already setting boundaries and how are they serving you? Where might you need to start setting them and in what manner?