Boundaries you deserve to have and how to maintain them

Physical boundaries include your needs for personal space, your comfort with touch, and your physical needs like needing to rest, eat food, and drink water.

It is okay to let people know that you don't want to be touched or that you need more space. It is also okay to say that you are hungry or that you need to rest.

Emotional boundaries are all about respecting and honouring feelings and energy. Setting emotional boundaries means recognising how much emotional energy you are capable of taking in, knowing when to share and when not to share, and limiting emotional sharing with people who respond poorly. Respecting emotional boundaries means validating the feelings of others and making sure you respect their ability to take in emotional information.

Your time is valuable, and it is important to protect how it is utilised. Setting time boundaries is incredibly important at work, home, and socially. Setting time boundaries means understanding your priorities and setting aside enough time for the many areas of your life without overcommitting. When you understand your priorities, it is much easier to limit the amount of time you are giving to other people.

Healthy sexual boundaries include consent, agreement, respect, understanding of preferences and desires, and privacy.

Healthy sexual boundaries include:

1. Asking for consent

2. Requesting condom use if you want it

3. Discussing contraception

4. Saying no to things that you do not like or that hurt you

5. Protecting the privacy of the other person

Intellectual boundaries refer to your thoughts, ideas, and curiosity. Healthy intellectual boundaries include respect for the ideas of other people, and they can be violated when your thoughts and curiosity are shut down, dismissed, or belittled. Respectfulness and willingness to dialogue and understand are important here. Healthy intellectual boundaries also mean considering whether or not it is a good time to talk about something.

Material boundaries refer to items and possessions like your home, car, clothing, jewelry, furniture, money, etc. It is healthy to understand what you can and cannot share and how you expect your items and materials to be treated by the people you share them with.

Having limits on how your material items are treated is healthy and prevents resentment over time.