Libsyn Directory

#6 - Creating Boundaries With Six Steps

Boundaries Queen

Release Date: 04/17/2024

Taking a Pause

Boundaries Queen

#16: Listening Boundaries: Knowing What's True (For You)

Boundaries Queen

Of the four primary boundaries, the listening boundary is by far the most difficult. This is largely because all of us have preinstalled “filters” that impact how we hear and receive others’ words (both spoken and written). In other words, your beliefs, biases, experiences, and a host of other factors impact how you hear what others communicate—meaning it’s incredibly difficult to accurately receive or take in the words others say. The listening boundary also involves only taking in what is true for you rather than simply accepting others’ words as reality. In fact, negative...

#15: Speaking Boundaries: Knowing How to Be Heard

Boundaries Queen

The idea of having a speaking boundary may sound strange at first, but by the end of this episode, I hope you’ll understand how a healthy speaking or talking boundary can protect both you and those around you. When your speaking boundary isn’t working well, you can come across as rude, dismissive, critical, or even contemptuous. On the other hand, a healthy speaking boundary means that you’re speaking in a way that makes your words easier to receive and easier to hear, because you’re clear, coherent, and respectful. This means you’ll avoid saying things you’ll regret or feel...

#14: Sexual Boundaries: Yes, No, and Everything in Between

Boundaries Queen

Of the four primary boundaries, the sexual boundary is the most controversial and the one that people have the most opinions about. In today’s episode, I want to simplify this messy, complicated topic so you can more easily implement your own healthy sexual boundaries. Sexual boundaries are non-negotiable. No one gets to decide whether or how they touch you sexually without your permission—and you get to decide what you consider sexual. It’s up to you to decide which of your body parts you consider to be sexual, for example, and what you define as sexual activities. Your sexual...

#13: Physical Boundaries: Protecting Your Body and Your Belongings

Boundaries Queen

There are four primary boundaries: the physical boundary, the sexual boundary, the speaking/talking boundary, and the listening boundary. Today’s episode is the first in a four-part series in which I’ll cover each of these boundaries in turn. Before digging into the physical boundary in detail, though, I’ll cover some basics of these primary boundaries in general, so don’t miss this episode. One deeply important point that I’ll cover but want to reiterate here is that physical boundaries are non-negotiable; a “no” is a “no.” This applies both to you and to other people,...

#12: Step 6: Evaluate Your Results and See What Went Wrong

Boundaries Queen

If you’ve been following along with the six-step boundaries clarifier process, you’ve already created a boundary and taken action. But there’s still one more step: evaluating how things went to see what (if anything) went wrong and whether you need to work through the process again. Resolving any problems that occurred during the boundary-setting process involves identifying the reason why things went wrong. In this episode, I’ll go over various types of problems (from unsuccessful boundary creation to broken agreements) and offer guidance on how to move forward from each of them....

#11: Step 5: Take Action to Create a Boundary

Boundaries Queen

If you’ve been following along through these episodes, you may be both excited and nervous to hear that now, in step 5, it’s time to take action based on everything you’ve worked through up to this point. The options you explored in the previous step directly correlate to the actions possible here—so if you completed step 4 thoroughly, you should already have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing now. But that doesn’t necessarily make it easy, so this episode is all about helping you learn the best ways to follow through and take action. One big tip I’d like to share is...

#10: Step 4: See Where You Have Power Before You Take Action

Boundaries Queen

As you work toward achieving the outcome you want for the situation or event you identified in step 1 of the boundaries clarifier process, it’s crucial to figure out where your power lies—and that’s exactly what I’ll guide you through in today’s episode. As you’ll learn today, there are four main options for where your power lies in this process. Ultimately, there’s very little that’s fully within your circle of control, and misunderstanding this can lead you to try to take control of things you don’t have power over (like other people), resulting in unnecessary conflict and...

#9: Step 3: Clarify Your Needs and the Outcome You Want

Boundaries Queen

In the first step of my boundary-setting process, you identified a specific situation or event you wanted to address. Today’s episode, which covers the third step in the process, is all about clarifying your needs in regard to that situation, and then identifying the outcome you want. As you work through this step, let go of being “realistic.” I want you to brainstorm all sorts of outcomes for the second part of this step, no matter how far-fetched or impractical they might seem, and to allow yourself to imagine exactly what you want. If you’ve worked through this step and...

#8: Step 2: Get Clear about Your Reality

Boundaries Queen

Welcome to the second part of this six-episode exploration of the boundaries-setting process. I’ll assume you’ve already listened to the previous episode about step one; if you haven’t, please go listen to that one and then come back to this episode. Now that you’ve identified a specific situation or event that you need to set a boundary around in the previous episode, it’s time to get clear about your reality as it relates to that incident or situation. To really understand what’s going on, we’ll examine the experience from three angles. First, there’s what you experienced...

More Episodes

If you’re familiar with my work or you’ve listened to my previous podcast, you might be surprised by the six steps I’m talking about now, because I’ve previously talked about a five-step process. This just proves my point that there’s always more to say about boundaries! I’ve added a new step at the beginning to help you get clear on a specific situation rather than looking at patterns before going on with the next steps.

To make these six steps clear, I’ll use a case study example throughout: an imaginary Uncle Joe stopping by your house unannounced. Come along for the journey as I talk about this scenario and how to work through it across these six steps. Once you understand how the six-step process applies to Uncle Joe, you can use this case study as an example of how to take your own situation through the boundaries clarifier process.

Biggest Takeaways From Episode #6:

Instead of focusing on a pattern when you’re working on creating a new boundary, focus on a specific incident (yes, even if this is an ongoing problem that has been driving you crazy for years).
Creating strong, healthy boundaries involves having a clear understanding of the situation and what you need from it. The 6-Step Boundaries Clarifier FREE eWorkbook helps you work your way through creating a boundary that will achieve the results you need—and this episode gives you tips and insight into how to best use this workbook.
Having these six steps in your mind will help you figure out how to face difficult situations. Once they’re fully ingrained into you, you’ll be able to walk through the process on the fly.

Highlights from Episode #6:

Victoria welcomes listeners to this episode and recommends listening to the show in order. [00:31]
Today’s episode is all about getting an overview of the six steps involved in identifying, creating, and maintaining boundaries. [02:55]
Victoria lists the six steps to orient listeners before exploring each one in more depth. [07:51]
We hear about step one in more detail with common examples. [09:05]
There are two related pro tips for the first step: focus on one incident at a time, and don’t focus on a pattern. [12:31]
The second step involves getting clear about your reality through three factors. [17:11]
Victoria gives some tips for working on step two. [20:30]
We learn how step two applies to the case study about Uncle Joe. [23:11]
The third step is about clarifying your needs, and has two parts. Victoria also offers tips on how to work through this step. [25:58]
In step four, you explore where your power lies before you take action. [28:54]
Victoria offers pro tips on step four, which can be a tricky part of the process. [30:45]
We hear about how step four works in relation to Uncle Joe. [33:35]
Victoria shares her pro tips for step five, which is taking action to create a boundary. [36:50]
The last step involves evaluating your results and seeing what went wrong if the process wasn’t successful. VIctoria also offers several tips for this step. [38:13]
Victoria briefly reviews the six steps for creating boundaries. [41:20]
Thank you for listening! If it’s before May 7, 2024, you can still take advantage of Victoria’s preorder bonuses for Personal Boundaries for Dummies. [42:12]

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