Your Stuff vs. Their Stuff
How often do you decide to do something totally 'normal' totally within reason, and someone close to you has a strong reaction that takes you by surprise, so you change your mind. It is hard to have self-loyalty. It is challenging to stand in your strength and recognize that they have a different perspective; it isn't that your behavior is bad.
These incidents happen all the time:
You decide you want to stop eating red meat for your health, for the environment, for whatever reason you want. Out to dinner, you share this news with a good friend who immediately starts firing off, "Why?" "How are you going to get your protein?" "Red meat isn't bad for you." "Don't you think that is a little extreme?"
Your son loves to paint, and he asks if he can take an art class. You wholeheartedly agree. Later as you are sharing this news with your sister, she says, "Art. That is useless. It is your job to help him learn useful things, not art. Why don't you enroll him in sports or a computer class? At least that stuff is productive."
You and your partner decide to do cell phone-free Saturdays. So you collect all the cell phones in the house and put them in a drawer to facilitate better family time. As you mention this to your mom, she says, "Well, what if I need to get a hold of you? I think that is an extreme reaction, don't you?"
In each of these stories, three things happen:
You feel good about your decisions. (YOUR STUFF--"Normal" decision)
When you share your decisions with others, they immediately go into shame, belittling, and judgment. (THEIR STUFF--"Abnormal" reaction)
You start questioning your decisions (YOU TAKING ON THEIR STUFF--feel like it is the wrong thing to do)
See how that happened? Call it boundaries, call it shame work, call it whatever you want. Bottom line--you took on their stuff. Their stuff could be based on 1000 things that have nothing to do with you.
Maybe your friend grew up on a farm and is passionate about red meat. Maybe she is feeling guilty about her own red meat consumption.
Maybe your sister secretly wishes someone would have encouraged her art as a child, but it got belittled out of her, so she continues that trend.
Maybe your mom is lonely and feels more safe knowing she can call you anytime. Maybe she feels guilty for not having more quality time with you when you were a child.
Honestly, the maybes don't matter because that is THEIR STUFF or that is their abnormal reaction. The goal is for you not to pick up their stuff and run with it. The goal is for you to sit proudly in your decisions and recognize that this decision works for you even if they don't agree. It doesn't have to work for them.
Hard? Yes.
Amazingly freeing? Totally
So start paying attention to how much you pick up other people's stuff and how much their stuff influences your decisions.
When you notice this happening, remind yourself that your stuff is your stuff and their stuff is their stuff--stand strong, trust yourself, be compassionate.