You finally set a boundary, so why does it feel like you’ve done something wrong? It took a while to work up the courage to say no to the extra project, ask your partner for help, or protect the sliver of self-care time you desperately need. But nobody warned you about what comes next: the guilt, self-doubt, and the fear you’re suddenly a “selfish” person. If you’re used to people-pleasing, this guilt can feel so overwhelming that you’re tempted to take the boundary back.
A lack of healthy boundaries is a super common contributing factor to burnout. It makes perfect sense. If you continually take on too much, try to rescue others from their problems, or struggle to say “no”, you can easily wind up feeling completely overwhelmed and chronically stressed. Although we often think of boundaries in our relationship to others, an often neglected but just as important form of boundaries is those we set with ourselves. If you really struggle to assert
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