Setting Healthy Boundaries: A Guide to Improving Young Women’s Mental Health

Why Boundaries Matter

Are you a young woman in college, working, or both? Maybe you’re juggling college stress, work responsibilities, and social expectations all at once. You feel overwhelmed and burned out, like there’s no way out. You should know when you reach this point of burnout, it’s a sign it’s time to set boundaries. Boundaries matter. Boundaries especially matter when women’s mental health concerns continue to rise. The Office on Women’s Mental Health reports that 1 in 5 women experience a mental health condition, including depression and anxiety, in the United States.

It’s more important than ever to set boundaries with the purpose of protecting and improving women’s mental health in the long run. If you clicked on this article, you’re probably interested in learning how to set boundaries as a young woman navigating college, work, or relationships. Many young women seek relief from outside sources, but the real work starts within you. The healthy boundaries you set today can help you make room for self-care, reduce stress, and prioritize your needs by clearly defining what you will and won’t accept from others. This shifts the directive role back to you. When you honor your limits, you are standing up for yourself and your overall wellness, creating a sustainable foundation to living a more fulfilling life.

What Are Boundaries

Boundaries are limits you set to define what behaviors are acceptable from others. Boundaries can be physical, emotional, or mental. When you express boundaries, you are informing people how you want to be treated. Boundaries can either be healthy or unhealthy. To understand healthy boundaries, we must begin with unhealthy boundaries. Unhealthy boundaries often mean saying “yes” when you really want to say “no” to uncomfortable requests, feeling guilty for taking time for yourself, avoiding difficult conversations to maintain the peace, and neglecting your personal needs to manage others’ emotions (often called people-pleasing). Recognizing what boundaries are is the first step in improving mental health.

Challenges Women Face

Women often face societal expectations to people-please, be the peacemaker, multitask without complaint, and essentially “do it all.” These pressures can make it difficult to set and maintain boundaries, especially for young working or college women striving to prove themselves in today’s fast-paced world. Women end up compromising their mental health because ignoring our own needs sometimes feels easier than standing our ground. Women’s mental health suffers from an internalized belief that saying “no” is selfish or disappointing. Tolerating negative behavior only encourages it continue. Unfortunately, many women neglect their mental health or are often unaware of their mental health struggles.

Work life boundaries should not be up for negotiation. It starts with standing up for yourself. Maybe you’ve been eyeing a promotion you deserved, but someone else got it. Maybe you’re trying to get your partner to respect your personal space. Whether it’s examples of boundaries in a relationship or work life boundaries, ignoring them can leave you feeling stressed, resentful, and exhausted. Learning how to set boundaries early on is the prevention you need to avoid burnout.

Examples of Boundaries

If you’re questioning what healthy boundaries in a relationship are, or if you struggle to set healthy boundaries at work or college, you are not alone. Improving mental health is something we all hope to do, but sometimes the actionable steps are what’s missing. Before discussing what healthy boundaries are in a relationship, whether personal or professional, I want to make a clear distinction. Setting boundaries is not about pushing people away; rather, it’s about protecting your peace. Protecting your mental health. Protecting you.

Here are some examples of boundaries in a relationship to help you manage stress at work, college, or in your personal life:

• Learning to say no without guilt: Use polite but firm refusals when requests don’t align with your capacity. Example: “I appreciate you asking, but I am unable to take this on at the moment.”
• Scheduling time for yourself: Take time to yourself to recharge, whether it’s reading, exercising, or resting. I find listening to a podcast relaxing. I recommend the goop podcast by Gwyneth Paltrow and the Women’s Wellness Podcast by Lucy Coutinho and Nihal Horne to get started.
• Paying attention to burnout signs early. If you’re feeling irritable, fatigued, or unmotivated, take a step back to adjust your schedule and commitments as needed.
• Communicating boundaries clearly and respectfully: Use a first-person approach using statements like, “I feel [x] and I need [Y],” to keep the focus on your feelings in response to the other person’s actions rather than placing blame. This approach allows you to assert your limits while maintaining respect for friends, family, loved ones, or colleagues.

Implementing healthy boundaries in a relationship can positively improve mental health for women and help you live a balanced life on your own terms.

The Power of Healthy Boundaries

Setting healthy boundaries is a powerful tool to prioritize your mental health. By implementing these examples of boundaries, whether in your personal or professional life, you are one step closer to attaining mental restoration and self-empowerment. Knowing what healthy boundaries are and putting them into practice empowers you to take control of your environment and nurture positive connections. Remember, establishing work life boundaries and understanding how to set boundaries in a relationship is not just about saying “no.” It’s about saying yes to yourself. Improving your mental health also means valuing your self-respect.

Set One Boundary Today

Setting boundaries is a journey of growth and wellness that requires you to regularly check in with yourself. It is an act of self-love, and you need to be actively engaged in it to honor your needs and worth. When it comes to mental health for women, valuing healthy boundaries is a step toward a healthier, more fulfilling life. You empower yourself the moment you start putting your mental health first. Now that you understand the power of boundaries, what is one boundary you can set today to protect your peace?