When we experience a relationship break up, it can be extraordinarily painful, especially if we were the one who was left. We may be tempted to blame the one who left us for all of our heartache and pain. We say that they “made” us feel pain by leaving us. Then, we emotionally beat ourselves up even more.
In reality, we are the only ones who control our thoughts, feelings and emotions. Whenever we give our power away by allowing others to determine how we feel about ourselves, we increase the pain of our heartache. When you stop judging yourself, or second guessing what you should have done, your feelings of rejection and self-recrimination will soften. You can view your ex as having said no to the relationship, but not to you as a person.
All relationships have a beginning, middle and end. With every hello, there is an implied good bye. Most relationships are meant to end. Holding onto them beyond their life span can be very destructive to our own lives and cause us to miss other opportunities that would be more rewarding and possibly more satisfying than the relationship that just ended.
Don’t follow, spy on, or call the other person. This only keeps you attached in a very unhealthy way and makes it much more difficult to let go of your hurt and angry feelings. Resist the urge to try and make your ex understand your hurt feelings or try to get them to see your point of view. This will only lead to more frustration and feelings of betrayal. Of course, do not harm yourself in a bid to get them to come back. Doing so never gets them to come back.
It helps to throw yourself into an activity or project that you love doing. While you are doing that activity you love you are processing your painful feelings and this can contribute greatly to the healing of those feelings.
Keep in mind that relationships are more about personal and emotional growth; happiness is only a byproduct of the experience. Our conscious minds seek having a good time through a relationship; our unconscious mind is seeking to grow through a relationship.
We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness. It is our thoughts, and how we choose to interpret them, that affect our feelings about our world and ourselves. What we think affects how we feel.
Focusing on negative thoughts or obsessively blaming your ex will keep you mentally and emotionally trapped in the relationship.
This kind of behavior will only increase the odds of you repeating the same situation with another individual. Realize that you willingly participated in that relationship with all of its deceptions and mistruths. Now, you’re participating in the pain of the break up. You can’t bring your ex back, but you can change the relationship you are now having with the pain.
There are no victims in a consensual relationship, only volunteers. Blaming yourself or your ex is useless in healing from the pain of a breakup. There were choices made by both of you that led to the resulting breakup. You also both made decisions that you thought were best at the time.
Those choices are now in the past. Nothing can change that. However, you may have learned some lessons from your experience and now is the time to look back over those lessons and learn from the mistakes that were made. Realizing that you have learned something will give meaning to the experience you are going through. Release yourself and your ex from any blame, and then give yourself permission to move on.
For more free information on handling your thoughts and feelings, log onto www.DrJamesWalton.com For self-help downloads, log onto www.TheDrWaltonSeries.com
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