Maybe you need to find your voice?
I was a wallflower for years. People could use me, manipulate me and hurt me on purpose. There comes a time when you have to stand up for yourself. Even with your kids, your ex's and your boss.
Finding your voice when you have the compassion, the understanding of the truth and can express it from the heart; it is a very freeing experience. Besides, you get to tell people how you REALLY feel, and that's cathartic in itself.

Here's a quote I read many years ago, and it holds true about your "power" (or lack of it):

>"As has been indicated, a little more patient, a little more tolerant, a little more humble. But . . .not a tolerance that becomes timid--this would make rebellion in self. Not a patience that is not positive. Not an humbleness that becomes morbid or lacking in beauty. For as orderliness is a part of thy being, so let consistency--as persistency--be a part of thy being."

Edgar Cayce Reading 1402-1

Amen