How can an individual (a HSP especially) transition from their usual self to a more assertive self like this? I believe it can get pretty challenging to put this into action?

Twice a day Reiki practice would be essential, to be able to develop the kind of self-awareness to make this kind of shift. I don’t know why or how, but a strong Reiki practice makes inner shifts significantly easier, many times simple realising something can bring about a transformation, with zero effort.

What worked for me (I don’t like labels at all, but I’m an HSP and empath) was watching a friend who had really clear, healthy boundaries. When in trouble, I’d ask myself ‘what would she do?’. You don’t need to have to watch a friend, because I can share the critical part, what happened next.

Heal your anger. I started to realise that I couldn’t act reasonably because of the anger I experienced inside. When people violated me, I got offended, angry and my natural response to anger was to shut down, be quiet, agree, say yes. That always got me into a lot of trouble. So I started working on that anger one step at a time. The day I was able to just see a person trying to have their needs met instead of someone who wanted to violate me, my responses became a lot healthier.

‘I’ll get back to you’. Another big one that helped was this – a family member told me to make it a habit to say ‘I’ll think about it’. He told me to just make it my internal programming when I was supposed to make a decision. ‘I’ll think about it, or I’ll get back to you in a bit’ – even if that bit is 5 minutes. When you take a breather and a pause, usually you come back to your senses, slip out of the freeze mode and you are able to respond much better. Over time you then become equipped more and more to respond more honestly in the moment too.

Get comfortable being a bitch. HSPs and empaths are frequently addicted to the identity of being a ‘nice person’, and this is a big obstacle. You cannot be nice all the time. There are (abusive) people who will push you and leave you with only two choices in the end – to be rude or to do what they’re demanding. In these cases if we’re enslaved to being ‘nice’, we’re enslaved to that person. We need to get comfortable with being a bitch. This is also dangerous advice to take literally as it can be used as an excuse to abuse people. Usually it is a more internal state than an external one, because there’s almost always a way to convey your message in a civilised manner.