How To Navigate "Stormy" Relationships By Practicing Mindfulness & Setting Boundaries

We all know that relationships, no matter what kind, can be incredibly difficult to navigate. Whether you are having difficulties in your relationships with your peers, friends, or family, “stormy” ones–ones that are characterized by frequent ups and downs–can be tricky. Toxic relationship patterns can undermine your self-discipline, your work and home life, your sleep habits, physical health, and mental health if not managed successfully long-term. Are you feeling the strain of unhealthy relationships in your daily life?

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One way that you can work to ensure happier, healthier relationships is by developing your interpersonal effectiveness skills. The phrase interpersonal effectiveness refers to an individual’s capacity to effectively interact with the people around them. Some skills that fall under this umbrella might include:

• Balancing priorities versus demands in relationships
• Balancing your “wants” and “shoulds”
• Attending to your relationships with others
• Fostering a sense of self respect and mastery

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One specific way that you can seek an improvement in your own interpersonal relationships is by practicing mindfulness and fostering a strong sense of boundaries. 

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Mindfulness For Healthy Relationships

Put simply, mindfulness is a core human ability to remain totally present in the current moment. Being present in the moment at hand means having an acute awareness of what you are doing in the present moment, and not allowing yourself to feel overwhelmed by the world around you or be overly reactive to what is going on at the time.

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Learning key grounding skills in therapy can help bring a sense of mindfulness and control to your life, along with the ability to create peace amidst the storm of challenging relationships, arguments, and situations which have previously caused you stress, anxiety, and/or depression. 

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Boundary Setting For Healthy Relationships 

Boundary-setting is another critical life skill that can improve the health of your relationships by creating a sense of deference for your own needs/goals as well as those of others.

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Furthermore, cultivating a strong sense of boundaries will help ensure that you do not get overwhelmed by your interpersonal relationships. Practicing the ability to say “no” and draw lines where you feel uncomfortable can help you immensely, although it may feel challenging at first.

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While relationship issues of all natures can be difficult to navigate, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that can help you develop the skill set of practicing mindfulness and being rooted in the present moment. Although it was originally developed to help individuals living with borderline personality disorder (BPD), DBT therapy has been found to be effective in treating various other mental health concerns, including the navigation of stressful interpersonal relationships. 

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Specialists acknowledge that learning DBT skills can better equip people as they:

• Communicate and interact with others around them
• Tolerate negative emotions
• Regulate their emotions
• Be present in the current moment
• Navigate distress

Here at Grouport Online Group Therapy, we offer online group therapy for relationship issues and specialized DBT groups for DBT skills training. Not sure which is best for you? Sign up today for a 20 minute consultation with a licensed mental health professional who will get to know you and match you with a therapy group that is perfect for your needs and goals. Your therapy group will meet once a week, at the same time and day, for approximately one hour. Grouport costs just $35 per week and can be canceled at any time. You can find more FAQs here.