Time does not heal all wounds. You don’t just magically bounce back from a painful divorce or the loss of a loved one. Acting tough and white-knuckling doesn’t end your misery. Your grief and sadness need to be acknowledged and dealt with.
So, what can you do?
Talk about it. Reach out to a good friend and/or a therapist.
Don’t keep going over the same ground over and over again. If you stay fixated on the same crap, it becomes your identity and your home.
Don’t be overdramatic. You have to think to yourself, “Is it really true that I can never be happy again?” The answer is no. And besides, nobody is happy all the time.
Identify the things you’re grateful for. Focus on what is going right.
Have compassion (not pity) for yourself. Be less critical of yourself.
Be vulnerable. Opening yourself up does make you more susceptible to judgment, criticism, humiliation, and degradation, but it also makes you available to love, support, tenderness, and understanding.
Put in the effort. Feeling better isn’t an overnight, automatic process. There’s real effort that you have to put into it.
