Brain-Friendly Practices to Strengthen Boundaries and Build Empathy in Uncertain Times 

With so much going on, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed. Many people are struggling to focus and feeling frustrated with colleagues, participants, or community members. Managers are facing additional challenges in leading teams amid uncertainty and stress. To address these concerns and build the foundation for a healthy workplace culture, we can use brain awareness to set and respect strong boundaries. 

Boundaries are what is okay and what is not okay. At work, this means what is acceptable—and what isn’t—within workplace culture, communication, practices, and work-life balance. While boundaries are often seen as confining or negative, they empower us to say “yes” to what truly matters. 

By recognizing unhealthy boundaries and using brain-aware strategies to respond, we can reduce toxic stress, increase empathy, prevent burnout, boost productivity, enhance teamwork, and create a more fulfilling work environment. 

March 16-25, 2025, marks Brain Awareness Week the global campaign dedicated to inspiring enthusiasm and support for brain science. As we think about our boundaries, it’s incredibly helpful to consider what is happening in our brains, which shape our thoughts, emotions, and actions every moment of the day. To set and maintain healthy workplace boundaries, we need to engage our “thinking brains,” which are responsible for reasoning, planning, and decision-making. However, it can be difficult to access this part of our brains when we are stressed and overwhelmed. 

Consider these key steps for setting healthy boundaries: 

• Regulate, Relate, Reason: Regulation is the basic strategy for calming our lower brain and staying in our thinking brain. Focused breathing, taking a short walk, listening to music, and dozens of other regulation strategies are ways to keep our minds clear and focused.  
   
  Dr. Bruce Perry’s sequence of engagement—regulate, relate, reason—is a simple practice for effective communication. The steps work in this order:  
  • Regulate: First, ensure you are calm and centered before starting to talk about boundaries. Use regulations strategies that work for you. 
  • Relate: Next, connect human to human. Ask a colleague: What are you looking forward to? What are you worried about? What are you thinking about today? 
  • Reason: Finally, move to the steps below.  

• Talk about boundaries: Be proactive. Have meetings to discuss boundaries. Just say it! Point out violations when they happen. 

• Give specific explanations: Make sure they are relevant to the other person and offer shared solutions.​ 

• Back up your boundary with action. If we give in, we invite people to ignore our needs. 

• Create a work environment in which it is ok to say no. Normalize setting limits, and encourage people to talk about prioritization, deadlines, and expectations. 

• Assume everyone is doing the best they can. This mindset lessens the emotional intensity and increases our compassion, understanding, and empathy. People have their own challenges, and we forget they aren’t trying to make our lives more difficult. This perspective sets us up for an effective conversation about a boundary violation or new practice. But to do it, we need to be in our thinking brain.  

Boundaries in Action 

Let’s dive deeper into common workplace boundary challenges and explore how the steps outlined above can address these dynamics: 

Is it okay to send emails after hours?  
This should be avoided if staff value work-life balance, and don’t want an “always-on” culture that undermines workplace well-being. To establish boundaries, talk about this practice, and ways to change it. Create email response time guidelines, encourage leadership to model boundary-setting, and use scheduling tools for messages.  

These strategies allow us to say “Yes” to family, friends, hobbies, volunteer work, and self-care. 

Is it ok to drop into colleagues’ offices unannounced to vent frustrations? 
While it’s normal to seek support from colleagues, this behavior can drain our energy, reduce empathy, and spark unproductive conversations. Instead, consider holding a team meeting to set boundaries about when and how we process challenges. Start with “regulate” and “relate,” and then dive into the conversation. If the boundary is violated, tell our colleague, “I can’t talk right now. Can we find another time to connect?” 

When we do this, we say “Yes” to deeper empathy, more productive interactions, stronger relationships, and effective problem-solving. 

Is it ok to repeatedly misgender colleagues or mispronounce their names? 
This is never ok. Respecting colleagues’ names and pronouns is fundamental to workplace respect and inclusion. When mistakes are made, it is important to acknowledge and correct them in the moment. Feeling exhausted or overwhelmed may make it more difficult to accept feedback with grace and correct the mistake. “Regulate” and “relate” is always the place to start because it will make it easier to “reason” and discuss the violation.  

This process says “Yes” to inclusion, respect, and a more supportive workplace. 

Is it ok to speak disrespectfully to someone else at work? 
Disrespectful behavior is unacceptable in any setting. However, the current climate of political tension, job insecurity, targeting of human services, and uncertainty is creating immense pressure. This toxic stress can lead to staff, program participants, or community members operating from a place of fear and frustration, and to interactions that are reactive, emotionally charged, and disrespectful. It is helpful to respond to such behavior with, “That is not acceptable. Let’s both calm down and talk later,” or “I understand that things are stressful right now, but let’s keep our conversation professional so we can work through this together.” These statements acknowledge the frustration and set a boundary.  

This approach allows us to say “Yes” to respectful interactions while embracing the current challenges with intentionality and grace.  

Consider having a meeting with leadership or human resources staff to acknowledge stress and explore boundaries and respectful dialogue. Make sure to prioritize brain awareness and start any such meeting with “regulate, relate, reason.”  

If the disrespect is turning into harassment, threats, or a hostile work environment, other measures are needed from human resources and leadership to mediate or reinforce boundaries and expectations. 

These are only a few examples of how unhealthy boundaries show up at work. Strengthening them is critical. The bottom line: Boundaries are the foundation of empathy, compassion, and working in human services for the long term. Especially in times of uncertainty, prioritizing brain awareness to set and maintain strong boundaries can have a powerful impact on our individual and collective well-being.  

Next Steps in Using Brain Awareness to Create Healthy Boundaries 

There is much more to learn about the brain and how it makes us think, feel, and behave. Creating brain-friendly awareness is a critical tool for building a healthy workforce.  

Social Current can help with that journey: 

• Consultation: Learning collaboratives, one-on-one consultation, and learning series offer specially designed experiences to create brain-science-informed partnerships with staff that improve engagement, retention, and communication; focus on sustainable culture change; and reframe challenges as opportunities to grow and become stronger. 

• Knowledge & Insights: Social Current’s Knowledge and Insights Center offers a robust collection of research and resources, including a curated collection on brain science and its applications. Organizations can gain access to the Knowledge and Insights Center by becoming Social Current Impact Partners or purchasing it individually.  

• Learning: Join our upcoming four-part webinar series, Workforce Well-Being and Resilience During Times of Change, which starts March 26.  

Sources: 

• Boundaries with Brené Brown (Video) 

• Compassionate Boundary Setting to Build Compassion Resilience from WISE: Initiative for Stigma Elimination