Patterns actually change through experiential shifts. Not through discussion about change, but through embodied follow through that creates a new reality the your system feels and learns to trust.
When you keep prioritizing their feelings, you train yourself to distrust your own. Then you call it anxiety, when it is actually self betrayal. Choosing yourself is the repair. It is learning to stay loyal to your truth even when they disapprove.
Staying in your experience is not passive. It is disciplined. It takes courage to feel the discomfort without rushing to control the outcome. The steadier you get, the less you need other people to be different for you to be okay.
You do not need them to agree with your boundary for it to be valid. You do not need them to like your truth for it to be true. Choosing yourself is allowing their reaction to be theirs, while you stay anchored to your own integrity.