June: Setting Even More Boundaries
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Setting Even More Boundaries: A Lesson I've Been Reciting Since January
This year, I chose to live in gentleness. Each month, I explore a new way to make it real.
After inner peace, the way I speak to myself, a less cluttered life, listening to my body, and welcoming my emotions—June brought me back to something more direct, almost rougher around the edges: setting even more boundaries.
"Even more," because I thought I already knew how to do this. Naive me, still.
What Saying No Woke Up in Me
For a long time, I saw boundaries as a door you close on someone. A wall. Almost an act of aggression.
So I said yes. Often. Sometimes at my own expense, as I wrote back in March. And I genuinely believed that was kindness.
This month, I had to face that habit head-on. Not just in my relationships. Also in how I structured my days, how much I let in, how easily I said yes to projects or requests that chipped away at an energy that was already limited.
It wasn't comfortable to see this clearly. Setting a boundary still triggers a small reflex of guilt in me. As if I were disappointing someone simply by respecting myself.
Setting Boundaries Is Also Saying Yes
And then, something shifted.
I understood that setting even more boundaries isn't only about pushing away what drains me. It's about protecting what truly matters.
Saying no to one more request means saying yes to my writing time. Saying no to a conversation that empties me means saying yes to my energy for E3C-Services and for my creative projects. Saying no to other people's urgency means saying yes to my own pace.
It's no longer a wall. It's a fence that protects a garden.
And I realized something, writing it down in black and white in my notebook: you can be gentle and firm at the same time. Kind and clear. Respectful of others without ever ceasing to respect yourself.
That's not a contradiction. In fact, I believe it's exactly what this year has been teaching me from the start: gentleness is not weakness. It takes courage. The courage to slow down. The courage to say no, even when your voice shakes a little.
Journaling to Go Further
My notebook was my space for negotiating with myself this month. Not to find a ready-made answer. But to learn, page after page, to listen to myself more closely.
If you also struggle with setting boundaries, here's a question to ask yourself tonight, in your own journal:
What am I really protecting when I say no?
You don't need to write pages. Sometimes, one line is enough to see clearly.
The EstellyHappy Success Journal supports me in this exact exercise: structuring my priorities, and with them, my boundaries. It's available in the shop.
To never miss an article, subscribe to the EstellyHappy newsletter. And to help you set your own boundaries, the Success Journal is waiting for you in the shop.
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