Thursday, February 9, 2017

My Ex Is Ruining My Marriage


Last Friday, she called me at 6am, 9am, 12pm, 4pm, and 2am, and then her family called me at 3pm and 7pm.

And she is just one of my many nonprofit clients.

I absolutely adore her and she is definitely one of my favorite clients, but she is going through some really tough things right now, and even though her life is not my own, I am beginning to feel emotionally overwhelmed and exhausted.

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For Christmas, The Guy gave The Boy Child a Ninja Turtle shaving set, and he couldn’t have been more thrilled.


Clutching it to his chest, The Boy Child literally screamed with excitement as he proclaimed “daddy is going to teach me how to shave, because I’m gonna be just like him when I grow up!”

He then ran over and threw his arms around The Guy, and deemed him “my best buddy ever!”

Good gosh that kid loves him, which is great, because The Guy tells me on a constant basis how excited he is to raise a son.

I know that I told all of you that on our wedding day, The Guy gave The Girl Child a necklace engraved with “The Day I Became Your Dad,” but what I didn’t tell you is that he also gave The Boy Child something.


He gave him a little tool set, and asked him if it would be OK if he did “daddy things” with him, because he would really love to be his dad. The Boy Child responded by asking The Guy to put a few rocks in his pocket, that he had been collecting on the farmstead where we were holding our ceremony (because he is five), and from that moment on, rocks, bugs, tools, cars, and now shaving, have all become The Guy’s job when it comes to The Boy Child.


It is everything I have ever dreamed of, and more; on one hand because I despise bugs and don’t have much interest in rocks, and on the other hand because I adore seeing my child have another strong role model in his life.


But just to complicate things, as I watch the bond grow between father and son, daddy and daughter, I often catch my mind wandering to thoughts of the biological dad that so easily threw that all away, and wondering if his second family will ever know the heartache he caused his first one.

All I’ve ever wanted was a family and now that I have it, I feel guilty that I can’t seem to shake the memories of the family I originally thought I was going to have, and the “father” that biology says was supposed to be here.

Judge me all you want, but I’m being honest here.

My kids were so little when my ex left, that for the first time, I’m seeing The Guy give my kids something that they had been missing out on for so many years. And although it makes me feel incredibly blessed, it also seems to be magnifying the emotions that I already felt towards my ex; a mixture of sadness and anger that you’ve been watching me grapple with for the last several years.

And I find myself — in those moments where I should be feeling happy — instead flipping through the painful pages of my past, and in turn missing out on something that should have made me smile.


I know that at some point or another, each and every one of you can relate to a time when negative feelings began to suffocate your life.

Maybe it was something big and traumatic like a sexual assault or the death of a loved one, or maybe it was a bad break-up or the impending threat of a job loss. Maybe it’s not even that big, but rather the ongoing stress of an over worked career, or the anxiety over a precarious financial situation. Either way, at some point, we’ve all gone through times when our negative feelings have completely overwhelmed us to the point where it spills over into the rest of our lives, and saturates all of our other emotions.

It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

When my ex first left I was so stressed that I lost like 50lbs in six weeks, and was only sleeping an hour or two a night. My feelings of heartache, depression, anxiety, and worry had completely consumed me to where I was barely even functioning.

And although I’ve come a long way since then, the arrival of The Guy and his role in my life, has been causing me to look back at that miserable time, and miss out on what should be my happiness now.


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My nonprofit client called me twelve times yesterday. She was in a panic because her life is changing faster than she feels like she can cope, and anxiety over the situation was beginning to push her over the edge. When the phone rang at 7:30 pm, I found myself stepping away from a family engagement that I was attending with The Guy, to answer another tearful call.

“I’m sorry I’m calling you so much” she began to sob. “But it’s just that everything, all of this, I just can’t seem to think about anything else and it’s overwhelming me.”

Listening to her, my frustration began to melt away, and in her tear laden sobs, I heard my own. Speckled with the very same words that I had said to Mr. Attorney Man nearly five years ago when I was losing my housing, my pantry was empty, I had no job, no husband, no hope, nothing felt survivable, and he seemed to be the only lifeline that I had for help, it was now my turn on the other end, while I listened to her tell me that she just didn’t know what to do, and beg me to please help fix her life.

So, since the very smart Mr. Attorney Man got me through something that I once didn’t feel like I could get through on my own, I gave her the same advice that Mr. Attorney Man had given me so many years ago.

“You can’t let it consume you. You just need to think about something else or you’ll go crazy.”

And then I told her my own take on his advice.

“... Which was great advice, but it really wasn’t all that practical in such a simple form. The changes that your life is undergoing are bound to be all consuming, because everything you are going through is new. When nearly every part of your life is suddenly different and everything seems scary, it’s hard to just ‘not think about it' all the time, because everywhere you turn you see evidence of its existence. The key though, in letting the stress not take over your life, is to acknowledge each thought, and then give it a definitive ending, so that you don’t get stuck in a cycle of anxiety. Only when you allow ‘consuming’ to become ‘accepting,’ will you start taking the steps you need to take, to gain back control of your emotions.”

And I guess, if there were ever a time to take my own advice, it would be now.

My entire life is once again changing, and although it’s not in nearly as devastating of a manner as I have found myself in before, it’s hard not to think about the painful “what should have been,” and keep them it consuming my present.

“Listen,” I found myself telling my client. “You are right, what happened was not fair, but you can’t change that. Starting tomorrow, I want you to make the conscious choice to sit down, in the quiet, for twenty minutes twice a day, and allow yourself to think about everything that is upsetting you. Let your brain go where it wants to go and let your heart feel the pain, but when those twenty minutes are up, you work on focusing your attention elsewhere. Unless you are actively engaging in something that is going to help you move forward such as talking to your attorney or creating a plan for your housing situation, outside of those twenty minutes, when those thoughts and feelings enter your mind, I want you to acknowledge them, and give them credit for being painful, but only for a minute. Then I’d like you to work on giving the thought some closure, before turning your attention to something else. ‘I’m feeling this way because of what happened to me, but right now is not the time to think about that, so I’m going to work on redirecting my attention in this moment, and I am going to make the conscious choice to come back to this thought later'."

Because the key here is not to ignore your feelings, but rather to acknowledge them in the appropriate time and place.

My ex really hurt me, but watching my son bond with his new father, is not the time to think about that.

I need to make the choice to let my happy moments, be my happy moments.

When you find yourself in a place where your pain, anxiety, or stress is taking over what should be your moments of happiness, remind yourself that there is a time and a place for everything, and those times don’t always overlap.


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15 comments:

  1. "Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die" Buddha . When your thinking " what should have been " maybe this is exactly how it should have been...you keep doing what your doing because you are on the right track , time and a place for everything.. And if all else fails have a couple chocolate martinis . I guarantee that will put you in a good time and a great place!!

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  2. I'm going to be an uber-nerdy scientist here, and tell you that your emotions remind me of a "Cartesian Diver". This is a classic physics toy that basically consists of an eye-dropper in a bottle of water. If you have the right amount of water in the eye-dropper so that it just barely floats at the surface, any time you squeeze the bottle the eye-dropper will sink to the bottom and not rise until you let go of the pressure. You can see a video at this link:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5eIRjmor1w

    Your life before They Guy came along was under a tremendous amount of pressure, so it was easy for most/all of your sadness and other negative feelings to "sink to the bottom". Now that you have some breathing room and some of that pressure is gone, those negative emotions are naturally "rising up to the top". You couldn't afford to feel those negative emotions before now, because they likely would have completely overwhelmed you and prevented you from finding a path forward for you and the kids. It would be nice if those negative feelings could just go away on their own now, but when does life ever give us the easy path to take? I think your advice to deal with them in chunks is perfect, so I hope you can practice what you preach. The silver lining in all of this is that those feelings coming back up to the surface does mean that the pressure has finally been released!

    Cartesian divers are easy to make yourself at home. Maybe you could make one to use as a visual reminder of how easy it is for our emotions to get hidden below the surface if there is pressure on our lives.

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    1. Steven, what an awesome visual. She has come a long way and needs to grieve her loss for what could have been while appreciating the new love she's found in The Guy. Thank God he understands and is patient through this whole transition . Eating an elephant.... one bite at a time 😉

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    2. Very interesting observation. I actually read this when you posted it, and it's taken me a long time to get back here and respond, but I have been thinking about it a lot...

      You always put my brain to work...

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  3. Enjoy every happy moment - you've EARNED IT AND THEN SOME! :)

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  4. You keep doing it to me Eden... Happy tears.

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  5. I really admire you. You've over come so much and you are honest enough with yourself to know what you need to fix

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  6. What you need, is closure. Quick, fast and in a hurry. I will scold you a little and say that you should have given that as a gift to yourself prior to marrying another man. This man, who has taken you as his wife...and has taken your children as his own....deserves all of you. Give it to him! Give it to yourself! Quell the nonsensical thoughts, and allow what you have to make you happy....before I have to smacks ya.:-) PS...Thanks for always being open and raw with your readers. It is endearing.

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  7. What you need, is closure. Quick, fast and in a hurry. I will scold you a little and say that you should have given that as a gift to yourself prior to marrying another man. This man, who has taken you as his wife...and has taken your children as his own....deserves all of you. Give it to him! Give it to yourself! Quell the nonsensical thoughts, and allow what you have to make you happy....before I have to smacks ya.:-) PS...Thanks for always being open and raw with your readers. It is endearing.

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  8. Amazing post. Going to put this one to work this week in my head.

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    Replies
    1. Glad to know I'm not the only one who needed this realization!

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