Boundaries are your superpower.

Boundaries aren’t selfish. They’re essential for protecting your energy and reclaiming your joy.

Jun 17, 2025

Sometimes, the people we love most are the ones who drain us most.

They may not mean to, but their negative outlook, habits, and way of life can cloud your mind, like the crash after a sugar binge.

It’s natural to want to include family or friends in everything, but when their presence drags down your mood and makes your shoulders heavy, you must be mindful of who you share things with. Your energy is sacred.

It’s the key to every mental shift, career breakthrough, and meaningful relationship you want. If you’re particular about anything, let it be how you use your energy.

You should live life the way you want to and not have to feel bad about it.

Creating and keeping boundaries

Just as we might set ground rules around sugar, like eating veggies first or saving sweets for weekends, we need to do the same with our energy.

Years ago, there was someone in my life whose negativity made it hard for me to stay optimistic about the life I was building.

When every conversation felt like a monsoon season, I finally told them I was happy with my life, and if they couldn’t support me and only reacted negatively, I’d hang up the phone.

I only had to hang up once.

Some negativity still slips through now and then, but life with that person has been much better overall.

The boundaries you create will look different depending on your needs. You may need looser ones or stricter ones. The important thing is to have them.

Take inventory: What’s one part of your life that needs boundaries?

How could you enact it starting right now?

Start with the least painful boundary to build confidence, then work up to the harder ones.

For me, the easiest ones to create were setting hard stop times for work and creating before I consume.

The hardest was telling a loved one that our relationship dynamic needed to change.

But knowing I couldn’t love or respect them if things stayed the same made the boundary necessary to save any semblance of the relationship.

Weigh the pros and cons of changing nothing versus being brave and saying something.

More often than not, you’ll find the awkwardness of stating the boundary is better than continuing as things are.

Removing yourself is okay

Every person is responsible for their emotions and well-being, including you.

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that. We can feel so intertwined with others’ emotional states that we feel like we’re wandering in a desert, unable to find our home base.

Take care of yourself and do what it takes to feel like yourself again. You’ll get better at not letting what people say affect you in the moment, but until then, remove yourself or limit the interaction as needed.

You only get one life. Just as it’s not true freedom to depend on sugar or other substances, it’s not freedom to depend on others’ emotions or acceptance.

If anything involves physical or verbal abuse, please get professional help and remove yourself from that situation as fast as possible.

If you’re ready for deeper support and a more grounded rhythm, consider joining The Good Space membership.

You’ll get access to our book club, café-style community sessions, curated growth strategies, and tools to help you protect your energy and reconnect with yourself.

Join us now to lock in your rate before the membership expands in August.

Upgrade now

Good Quote

“People may get angry at us for setting boundaries; they can’t use us anymore. They may try to help us feel guilty so we will remove our boundary and return to the old system of letting them use or abuse us. Don’t feel guilty and don’t back down.”

— Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More