How to Do a Better Breakup

We birth bigger versions of ourselves during a break up. The birthing process is often painful, but it’s sacred.

via Deliberate Creators Guide to a Better Breakup.

LOA Relationship CoachWe’ve all heard it.  Breaking up is hard to do.  However, for a deliberate creator, or someone who wants to be responsible for how they are managing their own feelings, breaking up can pose some even more interesting challenges.  You know you not just want, but need to feel better.  You know you want to flow love.  You know you and you alone are responsible for your thoughts and feelings.  You know all of it, including the break up is your creation, and you know you are creating right now, with this vibration you’re holding this red hot second.   

But knowing all that, doesn’t make managing any of it easier.  In fact, sometimes it makes it harder, because not only do you feel the pressure of a break up, which is a major life transition, but you feel like you need to “do it in the vortex” or at least as close to it as possible.

So, I offer this.  The Deliberate Creators Guide to a Better Breakup.  

  1. Cry if you need to.  Crying comes and goes and often comes when you least expect it and when it’s least convenient.  Crying doesn’t mean anything.  It doesn’t mean you wish you could have your lover back.  It doesn’t mean you’re sorry.  It means you’re crying.  It means you’re moving energy and there’s a lot of energy in a break up.  That said, crying can’t be forced, so if it’s not there, it’s not there.  That’s ok.
  2. Get pissed.  Often times we try to dismiss our anger, or deny it.   People say it’s not productive, or spiritual, when in fact, it can be both.   Stuffing anger is what creates rage, and stuffing rage creates sickness and you don’t want that.  Anger is very proactive and that energy is part of the healing process.  It rarely lasts as long as we think it will, so genuinely enjoy it while it lasts, and use it if you’ve got it.  Good anger, is almost always a better feeling than sadness if we really just allow it to be what it is.
  3. Don’t deny the contrast.  There’s a reason you broke up.  The relationship didn’t work.  There’s pain, and anger, and hurt.  Trying to “LOA” that away won’t work, nor is it advisable.  Contrast massively valuable for creating the life of your dreams.  In fact it’s necessary.  Take stalk.  Tell the truth.  What went wrong?  What do you really want?  If you freely allow yourself to do that, you won’t have to do it very long.  If you try to dismiss the bad in favor of a “better feeling thought”  you’ll be stuck trying to manage the contrast a lot longer.  
  4. Put pen to paper.  Set aside time everyday to write.  Write the story of your relationship.  Write about what went wrong.  Write about what went right.  Write about the lessons you learned.  Make it a daily ritual.  There is something powerful about putting a story in writing.  The subconscious thinks it’s trying to protect you when it won’t let you forget how bad you feel.  But when you put it on paper, your subconscious starts to get the point that you’ve got the point.  
  5. Understand your brain chemistry.   Your brain chemistry is a powerful part of what’s happening to you in a break up.  When you feel bad, as in really bad, you are laying down a powerful pattern of chemicals that perpetuates into more feeling bad.   If you are aware of that, you can start to turn your brain chemistry to your benefit.  This is a very good time to take up a new hobby or learn a new skill.  Get your brain busy doing something else.  It rewires the chemistry.   It’s a fine balance between letting yourself be with the truth and distraction.  If you’re doing your writing and crying, you should be good to go for distraction more of the time.
  6. Get very serious about pleasure.  Pleasure is very uniquely physical.  It’s sensory.  Pleasure is also a very effective way of managing brain chemistry that is working against you.  It’s hard to feel bad when you’re engaged in really enjoying that banana split, or the smell of a flower, the sound of the music.  Key words, really engaged.  Seek pleasure like your life depends on it and bury yourself in it.
  7. Speaking of music.  Music might be your feel better, best friend.  We’ve all know about the break-up mixtape.  What you need here is a fabulous life soundtrack.   Back to the brain chemistry, it’s almost impossible for brain chemistry not to be affected by music.  So, if you are diligent about listening to your fabulous life sound track, it will inevitably have a positive effect on what’s happening in your head, and it’s profound, so don’t underestimate the power of positive music for improving your outlook and helping you land on clarity.  Seriously – do this.  It will help.
  8. Double up, even triple up on self care.  Breaking up takes energy, a lot of it.  So, your regular self care routine probably won’t cut it during this time.  Self care generates energy and you need energy to sustain positive change.   So, when in doubt do more for yourself, a lot more.  You need it.
  9. Manage your thoughts and the energy with the magic incantation.  When you aren’t having a healing moment of anger or sadness and when you aren’t doing your writing, you don’t want your thoughts to be running rampant about the ex, the relationship, or the break up, the what if’s or hows. When a thought about the break up or the ex arises, simply say out loud or to yourself,            “I bless and release you.”  Those five words are magic.  They cut the cords and start to release the energy that’s bound in the moment.   In the beginning you might have to use the magic incantation 1000 times a day, but if you need to, do it, one thousand times a day.  Sooner than you think, you’ll need it far less often.

Most importantly go easy on yourself.  This isn’t an overnight process.  If you really allow yourself to feel the truth, it will take less time than if you’re trying to skip over it, but no matter how you do it, it takes time.  The important thing to remember is this time is very creative.  We birth bigger versions of ourselves during a break up.   The birthing process is often painful, but it’s sacred. (tweetable!) Something very special is happening here.  You don’t want to rush the becoming process. 

Lisa Hayes is an LOA Relationship Coach and Author of How to Escape from Relationship Hell and the Passion Plan.  She is also co-founder of Good Vibe Coaching Academy, specializing in LOA Coach training.

Journaling & The Power of Words

Why Journal?

At times of writing I never try to think of what I have said before. My aim is not to be consistent with my previous statements on a given question, but to be consistent with truth as it may present itself to me at a given moment. The result has been that I have grown from truth to truth.”  ~Mahatma Gandhi

 

journalingJournaling enables the writer to try various techniques that can lead to self-discovery through a process of expression and reflection. The diary is a place where you can express yourself without inhibition: feelings, thoughts, worries, dreams, fantasies, and goals; to recognize and alter self-defeating habits of the mind, and come to know and feel compassion for who you really are. Journaling helps you understand and resolve your past, discover joy in the present, and aid you in creating your own future. It’s a way to nourish your soul with self-acceptance; a nonthreatening place to work out relationships with others; to rehearse future behaviors; and to explore the “shadowy”, unknown parts of self.

The Therapy Journal

I encourage my clients to keep a therapy journal while we work together. Sometimes there is a temptation to get lazy in therapy and want the counselor to provide all the support needed. But you must ultimately develop these skills yourself. The use of a therapy journal will help assure that you truly learn from our time together.  It will become a place to develop and practice new life skills as you develop and fine-tune alternative ways of observing, thinking, and coping with your inner and outer world. Journaling is the fastest and most effective way I know to become self-aware, and therefore, facilitate personal growth and positive change.

To begin, I ask clients to write a summary after each session. Start with jotting your impressions of the session. It can include the content discussed, feelings you experienced, and even your judgments of the quality of the session. These summaries will help you sift through insights and feelings that occurred during and after the therapeutic hour. You can record some of your therapist’s insights and go back and review the advice when needed, integrating and reinforcing the healing process. You can also write about issues that came up and weren’t examined during the therapeutic hour and explore them more fully on your own.

Also, bring your journal to each appointment to jot notes that you can expand upon later. In therapy, we are often doing deeper work that you may “forget” when you leave the office. Jotting notes provide the reminder.

Other Moments to write about

Sometimes a wish to explore an insight or feeling cannot wait for an appointment. By writing about it in your diary the insight or feeling can be captured when it occurs. (The energy of these experiences has often dissipated by the time you have another appointment, and you might wrongly dismiss it as no big deal). Writing when the topic is hot can also help you track any possible rhythms of thoughts and emotions. You can also use these writings to get a sense of what needs attention during the next session.

The therapy journal will also serve as a sort of ‘timeline’ where you can review earlier writings. This practice will reveal the often hard-to-see progress you made over time (as well as any continued patterns of unhealthy thinking).

Other times, in addition to a summary I may ask my client to practice various skills we’re working on (i.e., the Awareness Wheel, imaginary conversations, inner child work) – writing assignments that will facilitate new skills or evoke fresh insights.

A good therapist may demonstrate HOW to nurture, support, and guide you, but ultimately the central relationship in the diary is to be with yourself, and it is precisely this active, positive relationship with self that therapy works to facilitate.

 A few Guidelines

  1.   Privacy: Keep your journal in a safe, private place. Confidentiality is important, as it will allow you to be honest and express yourself freely without thoughts of judgment from others. You may want to share certain passages or drawings with people you trust. But be selective and avoid showing your work to anyone who tends to judge you.
  1. Setting and time: Create a quiet, comfortable place, ideally where you will not be interrupted or distracted. For some people this is difficult to do. If that is the case, then figuring out how to create privacy for yourself will be an important step in your own growth. Reserve a block of at least 15 minutes when you decide to write. Date each entry and keep them in chronological order.
  1. Write spontaneously: Allow yourself to follow your intuition. Write quickly and allow the unexpected to happen. If you find you are struggling to write, you are probably trying to come across a certain way. Write as you speak: Do not concern yourself with spelling, punctuation, or grammar. This only inhibits spontaneity and engages the inner-critic.

If you have an inspiration and your journal is not available, write on anything you can find! You can then paste, tape, or staple it in your journal later. This will be helpful when you look back over your work to see your progress and evolution.

  1. Materials – Some believe your paper should be at least 5×7 so you can write LARGE when excited or angry, or small when sad or quiet. You also may draw sometimes, and/or use crayons. I prefer an 8-x11 notebook with three sections. The first section might be the “Therapy Journal” described above; the next section could be devoted to “Inner-Child Dialogue”, and the final section might be used for certain assignments, like the “Unsent Letter”, Awareness Wheel practice, dialogues, the Worksheet expansions, etc.

Happy journaling!

 

“You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do.
Even if we already have a mother, we still have to
find this part of ourselves inside
.”

Sue Monk Kidd