Seven steps to healing the lovesick heart.
We’ve all had them. Those icky, sticky, yucky feelings of love gone wrong. The sense of loss. Of abandonment. Of feeling devalued and discarded. Of being ”˜less than’ the light of love in our lover’s eyes. We’ve all had them and sometimes, those feelings linger for longer than is healthy for us to reclaim our sense of self-worth, of beauty, of joy in our essence of being alive.
EMBRACE yourself. You’ve got all you need to hold onto
is a seven step process that guides you through letting go of the love that was (and will never be again) into loving what is and will always be within you. You. Whole and complete. Living the 3Ms of self-eMPOWERED YOU! Magnificent! Miraculous! Marvelous!
EMBRACE:
Engage your heart. Still your mind.
Mindfully watch your words and actions.
Be honest with yourself.
Reacquaint yourself with you.
Allow yourself forgiveness.
Celebrate yourself.
Explore your world.
1. Engage your heart by stilling your mind. Meditate. Walk. Do something to get out of your thinking telling you your heart is broken. It isn’t. It’s just hurting because your breathing and thinking is tied up in thoughts of what he did to hurt you. It wasn’t about you. It was always about him.
In your meditation whisper:
Like me, he is seeking to be loved and this is the only way he knows how.
Like me, he has experienced pain, sorrow, and sadness and is looking for a way to avoid feeling them again.
Like me, he only knows this way he is choosing to behave.
And if you can say nothing else, repeat a hundred x ten times a day: I forgive him. I release him.
2. Mindfully watch everything you do and say. Become conscious of your choices knowing that they are always a reflection of your thinking and your thinking will always create how you are feeling and your experience in this moment.
Ask yourself — what do I want to feel in this moment? What is my intention for the day? Tell yourself you are capable of having what you want by reminding yourself what you’re capable of”¦
I wish to feel peace.
I want to feel peace.
I can feel peace.
I choose to be at peace in this moment now. In my choosing peace in this moment, I create the path for peace to appear in the next moment and the next and the next. I am the source of my thinking, my feelings, my actions and I choose to be responsible for my choices.
3. Be honest with yourself. Your healing will only progress to the degree that you are willing to be completely honest with yourself.
His actions were never about you. His actions, words, what he did were always about him.
You do not matter to him. He was not ”˜out to get you’. He was out to get what he wanted to make his life have meaning.
It wasn’t personal. He didn’t set out to hurt you. He set out to protect himself. He set out with the belief that ”˜you’ were a way for him to feel good about himself. You couldn’t be his way to feeling good about himself. You are not that powerful. Making him feel good about himself is not your job. Feeling good about yourself is your job. It is your responsibility. You get to choose how you feel about yourself. Be honest — are your choices making you feel better about yourself or worse? Is your thinking giving you what you want or is it taking from you what you need to Love yourself exactly the way you are?
4. Reacquaint yourself with you — remind yourself about who you were before he came into your life. Remember the things you did that said — I am a magnificent human being.
Did you used to volunteer at a hospital? At a homeless shelter? Did you used to do things that created value in your life, that created value in the world around you? Remind yourself of your power to do things that make a difference. If you could do those things then, you can do those things now. Let go of ”˜used to’ and get doing. Remind yourself of those things. You need to get moving. Get doing. Get being who you believe yourself to be. Who you say you are. Do them now. Do them again and again. Get involved and get into action.
5. Allow yourself the gift of forgiveness. Forgive yourself. Forgive him. Forgive anyone and anything who ever hurt you.
Holding onto pockets of unforgiveness limits your experience of your life free of his abuse. Forgive him. Remember, it wasn’t personal. He didn’t set out to destroy you. He was just doing what he does and you happened to be in his path. He has since, ”˜gotten over you’. He is off doing what he does in someone else’s life. What’s in it for you to hold onto his bad behavior after he’s gone? Forgive him. Forgive yourself. You didn’t know this would happen. You didn’t know you would be so hurt. So broken. So sad. And it’s okay. Forgive yourself and breathe into forgiveness all the loving kindness you possess.
6. Celebrate everything about you. Celebrate your magnificence. Your brilliance. Your light — even when the voices inside would tell you you’re not — celebrate yourself for all you’re worth! You are worth living it up for. Take yourself out on a date. Do something fun and whacky. Go to the zoo. Go bungee jumping. Take dance lessons. Learn a new skill. Celebrate everything about you in everything you do.
7. Explore life. Life isn’t about searching for the right answers, or the perfect you. Life is in the experience of living it. It’s about exploring your beliefs, what beliefs you want to hold onto and those you need to let go of because they’re not working for you any more. If believing he hurt you causes you pain, let go of the belief. If thinking of him makes you sad, explore new thoughts.
Life is in discovering where you’re at is exactly where you are meant to be. Explore this place you’re at right now. Explore your perimeters., Explore your life beyond this place where you find yourself caught up in living small, living less than your dreams.
Get up. Get moving. Quit talking about him. Quit explaining to yourself and anyone who will listen why what he did was so wrong. Wrong or right, it is what he did and all the explanations in the world will never make sense of his nonsense — so give it up. Let it go. Engage yourself in your life. Engage yourself in shining so bright upon your path the whole world lights up around you.
EMBRACE what is. And, if the thought it should be some other way interferes, embrace it and love it to death, or at least until it doesn’t hurt you any more to believe it should be some other way. It isn’t. It can’t be. Embrace what is, love yourself as you are and let yourself go to that place where you are free to explore and experience life on your terms. Free to love fearlessly. To live with abandon. To dance in the rain and run naked through wildflower strewn meadows. It is, and always has been, your choice to embrace what is and live it up for all you’re worth!
Are you willing to do it? It is your life. No one else can live it for you.
Thank you bluejay and shabbychic. My Mother put me on a plane with my son last week and sent me to stay with an Aunt whilst her and her sister went thru the mountain of paperwork shoved in boxes and containers so that I didnt have to deal with it. They have met with his family and handed them the pile of unpaid accounts and have told them that it is now their responsibillity to help him get out of the massive mess he has made, I feel so sorry for them but in order for me to be able to give my son a life I cannot carry his financial burdens that he has so masterfully put into my name. I will be meeting with a solicitor next week and my new Psycologist to enable me to start getting my life back. I am still very much in love with him, but I know that that love is no longer or was never there the way I thought it was. I go home today and I am shaking and frightened that I dont have the strength to deal with this although my Mum assures me that there is an army of friends and family ready to support me through this. I miss him, but lucky for me he now has a job mining and is away for four weeks at a time. The girls, have also taken his belongings to his parents house. I just dont believe that he will make things this easy for me when he returns. Thank god for the women in my family, and thank god for the true friends I have. Wish me luck and Thank you for listening.
AussieLisa,
Your mom sounds like an excellent lady, knowing how to care for you at this difficult time. I’m glad she’s in your corner, there for you because it is hard. When I was still with my h-spath, I remember having times where I was on edge, shaky. It’s from the stress that you’re constantly under, the “bombs” that might drop (things that you’ll discover that are hard to stomach). It sounds like you’re in good hands, having family and friends around to support you and care for you (in concrete ways).
I love this – I hope you do too.
An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.
One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.
At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.
Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.
‘I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.’
The old woman smiled, ‘Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?’
‘That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.’
For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.
Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.’
Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.
You’ve just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.
So, to all of my cracked pot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!
From one cracked pot to another,
I really like the story!
Wini that is a fabulous story!
Thanks for sharing that!!!
Wini, thanks for this fabulous tale! It is wonderful to start the day with good thoughts like these 🙂 !
Wini, thanks for the smile you put on my dile. To love people knowing their flaws, but loving them anyway because this is what we are – all inperfect but special anyhow and needing to feel worthy to the people who love us too. Every morning I wake up and see a little bit more of why I am worth loving because I have so much love for others to give. I am breathing deeply again now. Im feeling safe again.
Dear Wini, hey, us CRACKED POTS let the LIGHT SHINE IN!!!!
Great story! Thanks!!!! (((hugs))))
Aussie Lisa, welcome, and sorry that you have the qualifications to “join our club” but also very glad that you landed here as this is a great support site. Also very glad that you have great family and friends for support in real life.
It sounds like you are making use of that support, and even though your emotions are still involved with him that you are doing what is necessary to take care of YOU and your child! I think you are right, he will not make it easy for you to get away, and your Love for him will make it harder as well. Stay here and read and learn more and more though, and realize that his “love” was only a mirror image of your own love, not real, just a reflection. That hurts I know, but it also helps to realize that our love is real, and realizing that theirs is not, helps us to move to a safer spot! Good for you!!!!! and God bless.
I knew the pot was cracked when I brought it home with me. Does that make me a crack pot?
Dear Henry,
Let me answer that by saying, darlink that you “let the light shine in very brightly!” But that is what we LOVE ABOUT YOU!
Happy Saturday, Henry! You not working this morning? Wish I could hire you to mow my yard for me! Ah, guess I’ll crank up and do it myself since you are laying on your butt today! LOL