Recovering from Divorce? Step One: Develop a Self-Care Routine

Listen to your body

The mental stress and the emotional roller coaster of a divorce can take their toll on your body.

Maybe you were unable to eat properly or maybe you found it difficult to sleep.

Maybe it’s a long time since you were able to stick to a healthy gym routine.

Now is the time to take the very first step in self-care and lavish some attention on your much-neglected body. Your body carried you through all this. Now is the time to give something back!

Eat more healthily, and regularly. Take up a new form of exercise, maybe a team sport that also helps you make new friends, friends who didn’t know you before you were divorced and therefore automatically will take you as who you are now.

And, above all, make sure you get plenty of sleep.

Accept the grieving process

Whether you were divorced by your partner, or whether you are the one who needed to leave the relationship, a divorce is a big loss. A central element of your life no longer exists.

And therefore, part of recovering from a divorce is going through the grieving process.

It’s a natural process, and it’s certainly not a weakness that you should try to push away.

Be gentle with yourself

You’ve been through a lot.

And you are still recovering from your divorce, still in the process.

So have compassion for yourself. Don’t force yourself to be cheerful when you don’t feel like it.

Allow yourself to rest and take time away from social engagements when you need to.

And don’t judge yourself for not being a super-achiever at work right now.

You are who you are. Again and always.

Follow a wild and wondrous impulse

Come on, do it.

Now is the time to follow your fancy. To see where the wind will blow you.

Of course, don’t to anything too extreme, but a little bit of excitement is also part of good self-care.

You are free now. Use that freedom! Enjoy it!

The single life can be full of adventure.

Reconnect

Maybe there are some old friends that you lost sight of during your marriage.

Why not seek them out and reconnect?

Old friends can give you a sense of home and stability that can be particularly welcome when you are recovering from divorce. Reach out as part of your self-care!

They knew you long before you were married. To them, you are still the little girl they played with.

Free yourself from negative voices – inside and out

But self-care also means eliminating what doesn’t help you.

Protect yourself by putting some distance between yourself and people who are overly critical and judgmental. You need positive energy for the start of your new life.

And maybe now is also a good time to take care of those negative voices inside your own head. You don’t need them anymore.

To accomplish this, seeing a professional counselor can really help you accelerate the process of recovering from divorce, inside and out.

Celebrate being yourself

Take yourself on a lovely date with the one person who will be with you until the day you die – yourself!

Create a new narrative for your life

And as the grieving process is resolved, and as you accumulate and practice new skills in self-care, a new story of your life will emerge.

The story only you can live, and the story only you can tell.