{"id":877,"date":"2010-01-20T16:32:31","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T16:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html"},"modified":"2010-01-20T16:32:31","modified_gmt":"2010-01-20T16:32:31","slug":"how-good-are-your-boundaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html","title":{"rendered":"How Good Are Your Boundaries?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" height=\"375\" alt=\"white picket fence\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/84\/import\/boundaries_quiz_SH_2392064.jpg\" width=\"500\" \/>I just took our latest quiz, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Holistic-Living\/Quiz\/How-Good-Are-Your-Boundaries.aspx\">How Good Are Your Personal Boundaries<\/a>,&#8221; and um, I failed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Ok, not failed, but apparently in certain areas I&#8217;m not so good at asserting and communicating my needs. I knew that, but it&#8217;s somewhat enlightening to have it pointed out to me by a quiz, meaning its creator Andrea Ferretti did a really nice job; it&#8217;s not often an online&nbsp;personality&nbsp;test makes me self-reflect too deeply. She also&nbsp;wrote me this really interesting email about what she found in her boundary research: <\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;I found that most psychologists refer to people either having boundaries that are too loose and thin or too rigid and thick. To figure out which category people fall into, you consider both their physical and emotional boundaries. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Folks with loose boundaries have trouble figuring out where they end and another person begins. So, they might feel threatened when someone has a difference of opinion. They also might be very touchy feely and tell people about their whole inner world too quickly, causing people to back away from them physically and emotionally. Just as they &#8220;let people in&#8221; too quickly, they also struggle to keep people out. In other words, they have a hard time standing up for themselves and saying no because they struggle with guilt, which can ultimately make them passive-aggressive. They also tend to display too much empathy and when they see pain in others, it pains them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>People with rigid or thick boundaries have the opposite problems &#8211; they struggle to connect with people, they feel uncomfortable getting too close physically or emotionally, they may appear aloof and arrogant.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Interesting, non? I definitely relate to the thing about getting passive-aggressive when the needs you have not stated are not met. Going to pay better attention to that. Oh, and healthy boundaries are firm yet flexible, permeable barriers that keep you open but solidly yourself. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Take the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Holistic-Living\/Quiz\/How-Good-Are-Your-Boundaries.aspx\"><strong>How Good Are Your Personal Boundaries<\/strong><\/a> quiz. And let us know what you find! <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Like what you see? <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=FreshLiving&amp;amp;loc=en_US\"><font color=\"#023d89\"><strong>Click here to subscribe<\/strong><\/font><\/a><strong> and get Fresh Living in your in-box every day!<br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Holistic-Living\/Quiz\/How-Good-Are-Your-Boundaries.aspx\"><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just took our latest quiz, &#8220;How Good Are Your Personal Boundaries,&#8221; and um, I failed. Ok, not failed, but apparently in certain areas I&#8217;m not so good at asserting and communicating my needs. I knew that, but it&#8217;s somewhat enlightening to have it pointed out to me by a quiz, meaning its creator Andrea&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[930,929,927,928],"class_list":["post-877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-valerie-reiss","category-holistic-living","tag-communication-skills","tag-healthy-boundaries","tag-personal-boundaries","tag-setting-boundaries"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Good Are Your Boundaries? - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Good Are Your Boundaries? - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I just took our latest quiz, &#8220;How Good Are Your Personal Boundaries,&#8221; and um, I failed. Ok, not failed, but apparently in certain areas I&#8217;m not so good at asserting and communicating my needs. I knew that, but it&#8217;s somewhat enlightening to have it pointed out to me by a quiz, meaning its creator Andrea&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-20T16:32:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/boundaries_quiz_SH_2392064.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vreiss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Good Are Your Boundaries? - Fresh Living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Good Are Your Boundaries? - Fresh Living","og_description":"I just took our latest quiz, &#8220;How Good Are Your Personal Boundaries,&#8221; and um, I failed. Ok, not failed, but apparently in certain areas I&#8217;m not so good at asserting and communicating my needs. I knew that, but it&#8217;s somewhat enlightening to have it pointed out to me by a quiz, meaning its creator Andrea&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2010-01-20T16:32:31+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/boundaries_quiz_SH_2392064.jpg"}],"author":"vreiss","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html","name":"How Good Are Your Boundaries? - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/boundaries_quiz_SH_2392064.jpg","datePublished":"2010-01-20T16:32:31+00:00","dateModified":"2010-01-20T16:32:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/df896dd70b2001a7a331d7c0264dbd4d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/boundaries_quiz_SH_2392064.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/boundaries_quiz_SH_2392064.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/how-good-are-your-boundaries.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Good Are Your Boundaries?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/df896dd70b2001a7a331d7c0264dbd4d","name":"vreiss","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/7e2\/7e2e836248d6127446bfae5802ee2a83x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/7e2\/7e2e836248d6127446bfae5802ee2a83x96.jpg","caption":"vreiss"},"description":"Valerie Reiss is Holistic Living Editor at Beliefnet. She was a founding editor at Breathe magazine, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Women's Health, Natural Health, Yoga Journal, Lime.com, Vegetarian Times, and ABCNEWS.com. A native New Yorker, Valerie holds an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Beloit College in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. She also lived in Maui for a while where she drank green papaya juice and taught some creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/vreiss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}