Boundaries & Balance: 4 Tips from a Mental Health Coach to Protect Your Mental Energy.

4 Tips for Boundaries & Balance from mental health coach Anaïta Nasser to protect your mental energy.

1. Distinguish between compassion and responsibility If you grew up in the role of caregiver, mediator, or peacemaker, chances are you automatically see others' pain as your responsibility. But compassion doesn't mean you have to carry everything. Others are allowed to walk their own path, and so are you.

Many people confuse compassion with taking on others' burdens. They feel guilty when they say 'no,' as if they're abandoning someone. Or they hold themselves back to avoid being a burden to others. But the truth is: you can only truly be present for someone else when you're first present for yourself. This doesn't mean you love less, but that you love more healthily, without losing yourself.

Practical tip: Ask yourself: "Is this mine, or am I carrying it for someone else?" Give back what isn't yours. Visualize yourself returning invisible burdens to their rightful owner with love, without judgment. You don't have to carry everything to be loving. Take back your energy!

2. Learn to know your 'energetic house' Boundaries aren't walls, but filters. They determine who or what you let in and who or what stays outside. Imagine your energy as a house: who's allowed to ring the doorbell? Who can cross the threshold? And who gets a key?

Many people have never learned to guard their energetic space. They let people in who aren't good for them, or they let themselves be drained by situations that aren't nourishing. But your energy is precious, and you decide who gets access to your inner world.

Practical tip: Literally draw your energetic house. Give each relationship a place. Who stands at the door? Who can come inside? Who gets a key to your deepest feelings? And who stays outside, with a friendly smile? Remind yourself that your energy is a valuable resource - protect it like a precious treasure! You are worth seeing yourself as a great gift.

3. Don't confuse loyalty with sacrifice Sometimes we keep ourselves small to stay loyal to our family, partner, culture, or old, automatic beliefs. But you're allowed to live greatly, without feeling guilty or breathing through your guilt. Breaking patterns isn't rejection, but an act of love toward yourself and your health!

Many cycle breakers feel deep guilt when they choose their own path, as if they're betraying others by doing things differently. But by living your own truth, you honor yourself and even your ancestors - you show that their sacrifices weren't in vain. You give them the chance to write a new story through you.

Practical tip: Write down which beliefs you hold onto out of loyalty. Ask yourself: "Did this once serve me? And does it still serve me now? What am I allowed to lovingly let go of now?" Release what no longer serves you, and make space for who you really are.

4. Feel your 'yes' and your 'no' in your body Your body often knows what's good for you before your mind does. Learn to listen to your body's signals: tingles, tension, relief, or heaviness. What feels expansive, and what feels constricting?

This isn't mystical advice, but hard neurological reality. Your body stores memories that your mind often forgets. Trauma, fear, love - everything leaves an imprint on your nervous system. When you learn to listen to those signals, you can prevent yourself from placing yourself in situations that aren't good for you again.

Practical tip: Turn every choice into a mini-constellation. Write your options on pieces of paper, lay them on the floor, and stand on them. Feel how your body reacts - it will truly guide you. Sometimes your body whispers what your mind hasn't dared to say for years.