Setting boundaries for the heart does not mean becoming heartless

There are desires and affections that, without proper care, occupy too much space: approval you need, curiosity that invades, or a relationship that begins to absorb your whole life. Setting boundaries can seem like coldness. Yet a healthy boundary does not deny affection. It protects it from turning into dependency, possession, or impulse. It allows you to care for other responsibilities and look at the other person as a person, not as an answer to all your needs. An educated heart remains tender, capable of enthusiasm and self-giving. The difference is that it does not call any intensity love. It knows how to say yes with freedom, and also no when a way of relating begins to harm your own good or that of someone else.