A reader asked in a comment, how could her daughter say she liked being treated like crap? She and her brother use it as an excuse to treat Mom poorly and she wants to change it. How could they say that? How can she stop it?

The first thing to do if you feel someone is treating you poorly—take responsibility for allowing it! No one can do anything to you that you don’t allow. When you don’t stop people who treat you poorly, your silence tells them it’s okay to continue. People can use your acceptance of bad behavior as an excuse that you must like it or you’d change your response and put a stop to it. Not speaking up allows people to keep on treating you poorly.

To alleviate what might be guilt for doing it, people shelling out the bad behavior might convince themselves you like it if you don’t stop them. Most people are good inside and know right from wrong. But for some, taking advantage of people who readily allow themselves to be victims and give themselves away is pleasurable. And they see your letting them do what they do as YOUR choice, however wrong that is.

How do you stop people from treating you poorly? Don’t accept it. Period!

Okay, that’s not as easy as I said it. Stopping behavior you’ve always had can be hard. I know because I did it. Saying “no” to requests is scary. Telling people to speak to you with more respect takes courage. Often the ones treating you poorly are people you want in your life, like the reader’s children. Speaking up risks alienating someone. But in the reader’s case, it’s especially important for her to show her kids she expects to be treated with respect so she can be a better role model. In any case, you DESERVE to be treated well!

Stopping old patterns begins with starting to treat yourself more lovingly.

You might have to take the bad behavior for a while as you make yourself stronger with self-love. The more good you do for you, the better you feel. The better you feel, the more good stuff you’ll do for you and self-love begins to grow. The more you love yourself and value your right to be treated well, the less crap you’ll accept. As you build a stronger foundation for self-love, it gets easier to turn down requests or walk away from people who disrespect you.

I learned the hard way that NO ONE, not even your family members or spouse or best friend, has the right to make you feel bad. NO ONE!

And you have the power to stop them by changing your response. Love yourself enough to take a stand and say NO MORE! Do it slowly if that feels comfortable. Become aware of what people do that you don’t like and begin to let them know their behavior is unacceptable. Some people will actually get it and stop without a fuss. Others may need to be shown when you say “no” or walk away when they talk to you poorly. Continue to do loving things for you to reinforce that you must stand up to them.

Read my book to get more ideas for how to give yourself love and check out posts on this blog to get more suggestions for standing up for yourself. You can CHOOSE to stop bad behavior or CHOOSE to allow it! Put some time into thinking about which choice you want. When you decide to stop it, slowly do so with your response. It’s usually scarier to think about it than to do it and the results make it well worth trying!
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Take the self-love challenge and get my book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways for free at http://howdoiloveme.com. And you can post your loving acts HERE to reinforce your intention to love yourself. Read my 31 Days of Self-Love Posts HERE.

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