"Constantly allowing the needs of others to dictate your behavior is exhausting because everyone has problems or stress of varying degrees," Buck said. "Without a boundary, we absorb the stress around us and our own psychological resources get drained."

In other words, without establishing your own limits, you open yourself up to the risk of taking on everyone's problems in addition to your own. Or worse, you ignore your own happenings entirely. If you have a reasonable boundary, you don’t take on additional stress.