Boundaries aren’t about keeping people out. They’re the house rules for the people you let in.

Limits often get heard as rejection when they are closer to the opposite. Saying what you can offer and what you cannot is how a relationship stays livable for both of you, since the alternative is resentment nobody ever explains. Rules make a house usable, and they are not the same as a locked door. Without them people guess, and guessing eventually goes wrong.

Think of one relationship where you have been quietly irritated for months and name the actual rule you want. Put it as a preference rather than a charge. Most people can work with a clear request and cannot work with a mood.