A boundary works better when it describes your action instead of trying to control another person’s feelings.

STILLNESS

WHAT THIS MEANS

A limit that depends on someone else’s reaction is not really a limit; it is a request wearing a firmer voice. Asking someone to stop being annoyed hands them the power to decide whether it holds. What you can actually say is what you will do: when this happens, here is what I will do about it.

Take a limit you have been trying to enforce and rewrite it as a sentence about your own behaviour. Keep it small enough to follow through. Say it once, calmly, and let their feelings about it be theirs.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Which of your limits is really a demand about someone else’s mood?

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