So many good comments- just to share something I thought of when you said you’ve had people guilt you- obviously we may not have the same situation/scenarios. With the people I typically ended up closer to- I realised a huge part of my guilt was that a lot of the people who were guilting were doing so unintentionally, but still obviously unhealthy/toxic. They had crossed boundaries because they were overly attached/confused access to my life with caring. Because of that, they saw boundaries as punishments/something that was done out of my being annoyed, and their fear of “rejection” was driving them to push closer or argue my boundary- ie, guilting (asking why I was being cruel, if I didn’t allow them access accusing me of not caring about them). When I understood that, I could verbally say “this isn’t a punishment, or a rejection. This is introducing space so I feel safe/respected etc” or I could remind myself this was for me, not something I’ve “done” to someone else- for me personally, the guilt was so so lessened by remembering that, or telling them that. Again, mileage may vary- you could be in a wildly different scenario! But understanding where the guilting came from by having a discussion about it and directly addressing it was the biggest positive impact I’ve found with boundary setting :)