I met with my counselor last week for the first time in about 9 months. As we were talking, she does her magic and asks a few questions…
(I’m going to stop here for a minute. I have literally just finished a grad school class on cognitive behavioral interventions. My entire final was a live “practice” combining and using questions to help a person see where they can make changes. I made a perfect score. I literally just learned questioning skills. Insert eyeroll.)
Continuing on…as I sit in her office, it occurs to me that I already knew how to manage what had spiraled out of control in my own life. My mind is reeling with the thought, “Are you kidding me?” I had slipped into behaviors without even a conscious thought about how much stress they were causing me!
The process of awareness and using tools to function in emotionally healthy ways simply need to be rebooted sometimes.
I’m going to be honest. On my way home from her office, I was annoyed that I had forgotten that I had choices. I was living in my past reactions within the abuse cycle, and I had totally allowed myself to slip into old habits.
As I have pondered it since then, I have chosen to embrace the fact that I slipped into old patterns. It happens, and I wasn’t paying that much attention. I have just been “getting through” each day.
The difference now is that I know what to do. I know where to look for help if I need it.
But here’s the thing.
I accidentally isolated myself. It wasn’t intentional. It really did just happen.
FYI-isolation is my thing. I am really, really good at it. It’s how I survived in years past.
We absolutely cannot isolate if we are to live meaningful lives!!
Period.
Yes, we get busy. Yes, it has been hard because of the pandemic. Yes, we are busy with work, kids, classes, church…whatever the things are that fill your time.
But we need people to connect with. People to keep us in the present. People to bring us out of our headspace.
(And if you know me, you know how stuck I can get in my mind. I a bit of a weird-o about that. I can also get stuck trying to disappear into reading. And sometimes, I can even get stuck just sitting in my living room doing nothing…it is kind of ridiculous.)
So here’s the deal. I’ve been moving forward, step by step, since the day I found out my ex-husband was gay. Sometimes we get stuck in old patterns of behaviors. Except now, once the a-ha moment comes, I know what to do to get unstuck.
Moving forward isn’t about never looking back and never having another problem.
It’s all about the a-ha moments. They should totally give us a boost of confidence that we are awesome at this moving forward thing. We know how to get ourselves out of stuff. And even if we don’t remember, we probably know where we can go to get a little help!
Keep going. We’ve got this.
Loella Reina 