what do boundaries mean to you? We all have them, don’t we? A thin invisible line that determines where can be crossed and where cannot be crossed. As we set boundaries in our daily lives, it is also important to set healthy relationship boundaries and make them clear too.
Am I in a healthy relationship?
How many times have you sought to know this? How many times has the thought crossed your mind? Even when you found the love of your life on the best online dating sites, you still want to be sure that your relationship is healthy.
Perhaps many areas of your life are working, and you want to be sure that your relationship life is not bad either, that you have set healthy relationship boundaries for yourself that is clear, and your partner knows what they are.
Setting healthy relationship boundaries can be difficult to do; however, here are tips that can help you set the right relationship boundaries and improve a healthy relationship.
1. Define Your Terms
What is a healthy relationship like? What does a healthy relationship mean to you? If you can answer these questions, then having boundaries that are well defined by you, will not be crossed.
It will also help you greatly define your relationship and work on some aspects that may need improvement. As in life, in your relationships, the first step to knowing what needs to be done is in first defining how you want it to be.
2. Communicate Clearly
If you ever asked the question: what is a healthy relationship? It is one that both partners communicate in clear terms what they want.
Sometimes, finding the right adjectives to clearly state what you want can be very difficult. You may also worry about how your partner may interpret the message you want to convey but just say it.
Try as much as possible to be unambiguous in your communication, staging clearly what you mean and what you do not mean
3. Receive and Then Give
Try not to start as the person whose job is to be at the receiving end alone. This is not only in finances but also in compliments, work around the house, and simple gifts.
To set a healthy relationship boundary means when to stop receiving and when to start giving. It also means stating clearly the kind of things that you will not receive, and the kind of things that you do not expect to be given.
4. Physical Meets Beats Virtual
This is true all the time. That when communicating with your partner, facial expressions need to be seen, energy needs to be felt, and tones need to be properly understood.
But if your relationship is often more virtual than physical, all of these may be lost in electronic devices. Messages can be misinterpreted if the parties who are giving and receiving the messages can not see themselves.
To improve a healthy relationship, you and your partner would have to set a healthy relationship boundary on less use of electronic devices to communicate and more physical communication.
5. Do Not Move Your Lines Too Far
In creating healthy relationship boundaries and defining what you want, you need to be flexible. Flexibility in the sense that you may adjust your principles to try to accommodate the changing times
But do not move them too far. Let them be in the confines of what is of interest to you and things that you can tolerate so that your partner can know.
6. Try New Things Together
To be happy in your relationship and improve them, you and your partner need to make time to do new things together.
Routines can be boring and tasteless as you constantly do them, however, trying new exciting stuff with your partner can help improve your relationship a great deal.
7. More Than a Body Language
Reading countenances is a great way to know what your partner is thinking and feeling without them saying anything. You may get busy and not notice your partner’s countenance, but being deliberate about knowing how your partner feels is very important.
Because it is easy for your partner to sense if they are important to you, if they sense your constant effort in reading their body language, it eliminates the doubt that the question; what is a healthy relationship like?
8. Emotional Connections That Flows
In building and improving a great relationship, you need to ensure that you and your partner have a great emotional connection that is fluid. A connection that will be seamless and easy for both of you to connect with.
It could be simple connections like:
- Seeing a movie together
- Telling boring and interesting jokes
- Teasing each other
- Doing the things that you both have an interest in
And other activities that will help you both to connect emotionally and improve your relationships
9. Words Are More
The kind of words that you use on your partner or allow your partner to use on you will greatly affect your relationship. Therefore words must be part of what makes your list for healthy relationship boundaries.
Positive words and honest compliments on efforts are vital and key factors in the growth of a relationship. So it is important to be generous with kind words.
10. Be Intentional About Your Love Life
Try not to take your partner for granted, the kind that stems from being too familiar with them. Many couples do that, and it is very detrimental to the growth of the relationship. Couples who are intentional about valuing their partner do not need to ask what a healthy relationship is like, because their relationship is healthy, and they can both feel it.
To improve your relationship, healthy relationship boundaries need to be set, alongside some deliberate efforts. Have you ever been in a relationship where your partner was crossing the line, and you said to yourself, “no way I’m taking this? What did you do?
About the author
Michelle Austin is a guest blogger and copywriter with more than 3 years of experience in the psychology of family relationships category. Worked for a long time at the Media Group as editor. Now she is a relationship coach for couples from Mansfield, OH. Her main goal is to help couples stay together in a healthy and strong relationship. Take care of yourself and be patient.