Healthy Boundaries

A couple of long-Covid patients that I’ve treated lately have touched on a similar issue when describing their recovery process:

They both felt that an important part of the process had been “letting go of people that were no longer good for them”. Also, that truly giving themselves permission to step out of the unhappy cortisol-driven behaviours that their lives had previously entailed, had been a difficult but entirely necessary part of the journey back to wellness.

All of which means healthy boundaries: knowing what’s good for us and what’s not, and having the clarity and courage to say “yes” or “no” accordingly. One of those patients I mentioned said that this online course had been particularly helpful in that regard.

And this article lays out the importance of healthy boundaries as an important statement of self-worth, albeit in the context of addiction as opposed to chronic fatigue or burnout.

At the root of the boundary issue is simply the need for rest. It’s very hard to truly rest and recuperate if porous boundaries mean that we’re dealing with a constant low-level sense of being obliged to perform according to other people’s terms!