Remember this…
Well…
Turns out self love is the answer
Becoming more assertive was only a matter of loving yourself more.
How?
When you revere yourself, unkind and abusive treatment gets automatically repelled. Because you like yourself a lot.
(I told off a rude customer who tried to tell me how to do my job in that calm, matter of fact Sanguine way. It was automatic, I had the right to answer back in full, not to justify, pacify and whittle away his behaviour and make the person wait for his goods)
Simple?
Well, it only took a good 40 years to re-acquire something that babies have naturally. But hey, better late that never?