In order to be able to make contact with others, you need to be aware of your own limits. We often only realize this when someone has “stepped too close” to us, has already crossed our boundaries. Or when someone withdraws, colloquially “dilutes” themselves.

Being able to experience, consciously maintain or break off contact is essential for shaping our relationships – whether they are collegial, familial, friendly or based on partnership.

Without boundaries, there is no contact surface, no relationship building with myself or others. As a human being, I must not or should not set boundaries, but rather this is unavoidable in order to create a space for contact with others.

Refusing contact can be done in different ways, e.g. by someone making themselves unreachable, letting the other person go nowhere, but also, for example, by not recognizing or setting boundaries (from me or my counterpart).

Only at boundaries does it become clear where one ends and the other begins. Where similarities, differences and design options lie. By (consciously or unconsciously) changing or shifting boundaries, there is always the opportunity to initiate and experience new contact and relationships.