Yes and No

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Question 1- I’ve been getting a lot this week: What are healthy boundaries really, in a close relationship/friendship? What if I say yes, but I mean, no? Does having a sense of what I need make me selfish when others don’t meet me there?

My answer: Healthy boundaries are beautiful, open, porous exchanges between people that are willing to truly understand each other and themselves in relation to each other. Healthy boundaries are meant to be changed, renegotiated, reconversed because needs change, life changes, time changes us. They take effort and work, and care to keep up but once they exist, you feel loved and understood in a way that makes you feel like someone truly has your back as you have theirs.

What are boundaries that are unhealthy?

From “Yes doesn’t count if you can’t say No” (Googling this article will help):
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Whenever you give up what is most important to you in order to either get what you need, or to keep the peace, you are allowing your boundaries to be violated.
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Ask yourself if you knowingly or unknowingly violate your partner’s boundaries by taking advantage of a lack of clarity on their part. This is too common- “oh, they are unclear and needy of me, let me just get what I need from them until they clarify”
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When there is no opportunity to negotiate, when boundaries become walls without conversation
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When you communicated to your best and your friend/partner just does not want to meet you there, responds with defense after defense or blames you for “making things difficult”.

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When you or they overpromise/underdeliver and don’t have or are unwilling to consistently learn how to negotiate differences.
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#therapy #learn #grow #becomebetter #dobetter#boundaries #no #yes #culture #relationship