Spring Cleaning for the Mind? How to Declutter Negative Thoughts After Divorce
The sight of blooming flower blossoms always prompts the itch to spring clean. While we may toss out our junk, scrub the floors, and dust the furniture, we often don’t take the time to declutter the negative thoughts that intrude in our minds daily. This is especially true for recently divorced individuals, who often experience loneliness, anxiety, guilt, and grief.
Here are three ways to declutter those negative thoughts just in time to welcome the change of the seasons!
- Engage in Self-Care
Self-care is perhaps one of the easiest ways to start decluttering negative thoughts after a divorce. We hear often about doing self-care, but what exactly is self-care?
Self-care is generally defined as doing anything to improve one’s mental health. This can be done in a variety of ways. It can be as simple as reading a book for an hour, or as complicated as planning a trip to Europe! Going on a daily walk, starting a new hobby, journaling, or even volunteering are examples.
Doing something for yourself as you navigate this new life post-divorce, can help ground you and declutter those negative thoughts. While
The author of the book, Vikki Stark, graphically describes her feelings and emotions as her Husband tells her “it’s over”, i.e. “the marriage is over”, after she had returned from a book tour about her most recent book, My Sister, Myself, in 2006. At the time, the author had a twenty-one (21) year marriage, which she thought was a successful one. She felt loved and blessed to have a happy and fulfilling marriage. She was shocked to learn that her Husband had been engaged in a six (6) year extra-marital relationship. He was leaving her for the “other woman”! She did not know that the “other woman” existed!
The word “celebration” is derived from the verb “celebrate” which is defined as “to commemorate an anniversary, holiday, etc., with festivity”. If you think of a birthday celebration, you think of gifts, a party, and a birthday cake! If you think about a wedding, you think about the ceremony, the reception that follows, and a wedding cake! If you think about someone’s graduation or retirement, there is the assumption of a party with a cake to be included with the celebration. But, do you think about a divorce celebration? Some persons do; and some bakeries are happy to oblige by providing divorce cakes.
Over the past month or so, I have come across some interesting items related to post-divorce parties, celebrations and gifts. In my opinion, some of them are respectable, others are pretty far out there, and a few are bizarre or just sort of crass. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Nonetheless, I will share some with our readers.