Strong Boundaries Are Critical for Healthy Relationships. Can You Stand up for Yourself?

Intimate relationships are stronger when you know where you end and the other begins.

By Steven Lake

Boundaries in a relationship are something we don’t often talk about, but we engage with them every day. It often appears as a power struggle. Can you relate?

Having clearly defined boundaries, and boundaries that will be defended creates clarity for all parties involved. It tells the other what you will and will not put up with.

Unfortunately, for a myriad of reasons, some of us are not so good at 1) establishing boundaries and 2) keeping them.

In order to establish and keep boundaries, we must be able to tell the other person what we see or experience, how we feel about it, what we need, and what will be the consequences if our boundaries are not respected.

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There is an old saying that strong fences make good neighbors. It is the same with intimate relationships. When talking about strong boundaries I am not talking about withholding information, being secretive, not sharing oneself, or pushing the other away.