Divorce can be difficult to deal with, no matter why it happened, or how long the marriage was. Not only can it take a toll on you emotionally, but it can also be draining physically. However, while divorce may be difficult, that doesn’t mean all hope should be lost. Even if you can’t do anything about the fact that your divorce is happening, there are things you can do to deal with divorce the healthy way.
Look After Your Physical Health
Divorce can be depressing, and because of this, some may neglect their emotional and physical health. Unfortunately, neglecting physical health can have negative consequences and may even result in worsening the feelings of depression that you’re already experiencing. One way to help avoid this is to prioritize your physical health. Some good ways to do this include eating a nutritious, balanced diet full of fresh produce and lean protein. While including more healthy foods in your diet, avoiding foods high in sugar and refined carbs can also be beneficial, as these foods can disrupt your blood sugar, which can, in turn, lead to poor mood and mood swings.
For those that struggle with eating a healthy diet during this time, trying a supplement can be another option for helping increase your nutrient intake and boosting your mood. In addition to eating well and ensuring that you’re getting proper nutrition, a regular exercise routine can also help keep your mood up. Working out is not only great for staying in shape, but it can also balance hormones and increase happiness hormones, like serotonin, too. While taking these steps to look after your physical health may not banish feelings of depression, in many cases, they can help reduce it and make it easier for you to focus on processing your emotions.
Keep Your Life in Balance
Along with looking after your physical health, it can be important to maintain some balance in other areas of your life as well. At times of emotional difficulty, it may be tempting to let other things like your work and social life go by the wayside. However, neglecting responsibilities and isolating yourself can lead to negative consequences, which can worsen the situation. Although it may not always feel easy, keeping up with responsibilities and social engagements like you normally would helps make the situation a little easier.
Make Time for You
While it’s important to take care of your responsibilities, it is also important to take some time for yourself as well. Even though it’s not beneficial to slack on your responsibilities, taking it easy when you need to is okay. This could mean taking a day off when you’re feeling particularly down, 6r carving out some time for a relaxing yoga class on the weekend. Either way, finding time to do little things that will rejuvenate you can make a big difference.
Take Time to Process Your Emotions
When it comes to healthily getting through the divorce process, pausing to process your emotions properly is one of the most important things you can do. While some may shy away from dealing with their tough emotions as they come up, unresolved feelings can linger in your mind for a long time and end up causing more stress than if they had been confronted when they first came up. There can be many ways to process your emotions, from going to a professional therapist, to talking things out with a close family member or friend, to journaling.
Learn to Let Go
Once you’ve spent time processing your difficult emotions, the next step is learning to let go of them as much as possible and move forward. Sometimes when you are in the midst of a difficult situation, like divorce, it can be tempting to ruminate on the past and all the things that went wrong in the relationship that caused it to end the way it did. While looking back from time to time may help process it and make sense of what happened, doing it too much can lead to feelings of hopelessness. By learning to release your negative thoughts and emotions and look towards the future, you can remind yourself that this won’t last forever and that there is hope for your future.
A Final Word
Divorce is often a time of emotional upheaval for many, and it can take a toll not only on emotional health, but also on physical health. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything you can do to make the process of healing from your divorce easier. When you look after your physical health, process your difficult emotions, and ultimately let go of them, you can help ensure you’re getting through your divorce healthily.
Source = Paisley Hansen