I think it means enforcing your boundaries, rather than allowing them to be trampled, and expressing that someone's behavior doesn't work well for you and for your relationship, rather than merely empathizing and comforting that person.
I don't think you do anyone in your life a favor by subjugating your own boundaries, and often empathy and comfort can occur like a "reward" for undesirable behavior, so the person has no motivation to make a change -- why should they? They get schmoopiness and love when they act out!
Expressing boundaries can be a great pattern interrupt, too -- just scrambles the person's strategy so they can't keep running their pattern in the same way.
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