Knowing How To Set Limits Is Also Health
In today’s society, teleworking is an increasingly widespread modality. In addition, we use social networks and messaging and video calling services more than ever to connect with our partner, family, friends, co-workers, and other Internet users… and even so, sometimes we feel saturated. Therefore, it is an irony to force ourselves to set limits from time to time, for the sake of our health.
Jane Wilde Hawking wrote in her book Towards Infinity that when people fight against destiny, the only thing that matters is safeguarding survival. And so it is, this phrase can be applied without a doubt to our lives.
Although we live in a hyper-connected world capable of offering many advantages, we have a duty to safeguard a valuable dimension: our well-being.
Let’s discuss more about this topic below.
Knowing how to set limits is also health
We are all clear that in life betting on assertiveness and knowing how to set limits in certain situations is a guarantee of peace and mental balance. However … who was going to tell us that in today’s society we would have to do it often? It turns out, at least, strange.
Today, it is common for us to have the idea that what is expected is that we enjoy each connection with our own through technology and social networks. Likewise, it is common for us to think of work facilities as an unequivocal guarantee of well-being, without really stopping to think if it would apply in our case
Despite the expectations and the facilities offered by the digital world, we cannot always enjoy 24/7 connections.
Teleworking and online education still need to improve
Telecommunications companies indicate that the connection peak begins at 9:00 in the morning. This is when the most email exchanges occur.
On average, telecommuting working hours last up to 10 hours, instead of eight. And what is more striking, many people set a part of their working hours between 12:00 and 3:00 a.m.
The reason for this is simple: they cannot concentrate during the day and have no choice but to work during those hours when, for example, children sleep.
On the other hand, in the field of distance school education there are many shortcomings and imbalances. There are teachers and professors who limit themselves to sending exercises without doing explanations online. Evaluation systems are not always the most successful. And to this is added the technological factor: not all children in a household have their own computer.
Establishing limits in today’s society implies knowing how to organize. Proper time management in terms of teleworking would allow us not only to be more productive, but also to avoid stress. Thus, and with regard to online schooling , it is also advisable to set a limit on what can be achieved and what cannot.
In most cases, parents have an added burden with their children’s classes. It is a problem that we must assess and resolve.
Set limits: being home doesn’t mean you’re always available
Setting limits also implies that others understand that we are not always available. Sometimes, we don’t feel like having that conversation, neither by chat nor by video call. And not because we love that person less. It is simply that sometimes we need more to read a book or do nothing and calm the mind.
You have to understand that each person has a rhythm and has particular needs. Sometimes, and almost without realizing it, we spend hours writing messages and calling. All of this is positive and is our daily salvation. But we all need breaks, time to ourselves. Therefore, setting a limit is also healthy.
Mental limits are also necessary
The need to set limits also comes from monitoring ourselves. and provide us with good emotional self-care. It is not only necessary to raise external containment barriers, reducing, for example, the amount of information we receive.
What does this mean? It involves, for example, setting limits on excessive worry. It is necessary to understand that well-being is knowing how to be assertive with others, but also with ourselves, controlling what is in our hands.
It is true that there are things that are beyond our control, that we deal with uncertainty and fear on a daily basis. However, we must put dams to that mind that anticipates things that have not yet happened, to those ideas that visualize the worst and intensify anxiety.
Let’s be clear, attending to our internal universe is as decisive as controlling what comes to us from outside. Well-being is in balance, in knowing how to set limits, in being clear about what we need most at all times. Let’s work on it.
