Latest / Reflect Reclaim & Liberate - with Sallyanne Hartnell / Starting Over: What No One Tells You About Life After Divorce
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Reflect, Reclaim and Liberate, a podcast covering all things relationships, separation, and divorce.
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: How to create healthy, happy, fulfilling relationships without sacrificing any part of yourself.
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: Supporting anyone feeling challenged in their relationship or marriage.
- 0:18SPEAKER_00: These are confidential conversations for you if you're navigating separation, divorce, or reorganising life afterwards.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: Decide whether to stay or leave a relationship or marriage, divorce with less drama, and consciously choose what's next for you.
- 0:36SPEAKER_00: I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is recorded, the Warren Tree people of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging.
- 0:45SPEAKER_00: I acknowledge them as the original storytellers of this land.
- 0:53SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this week's episode of the podcast, all about starting over and what no one tells you about life after divorce, about leaving a relationship that you thought was forever.
- 1:08SPEAKER_00: Starting over after the ending of a long-term relationship, marriage, divorce isn't just about moving on, doing the things, jumping to the good stuff.
- 1:18SPEAKER_00: You're leaving a relationship you thought was forever.
- 1:23SPEAKER_00: It's massive.
- 1:25SPEAKER_00: Whether you chose it or you were not the one to choose the ending of the relationship, you are still farewelling something that you thought was, if not forever, for a really, really long time.
- 1:39SPEAKER_00: Nobody enters a marriage thinking or hoping or planning for it to end in divorce.
- 1:45SPEAKER_00: And I'm not one, I'm not going to say that longevity is an indicator of a happy relationship, a happy marriage.
- 1:53SPEAKER_00: It's not, right?
- 1:54SPEAKER_00: But leaving behind a relationship that you entered thinking perhaps it was forever is massive.
- 2:02SPEAKER_00: And it becomes more about discovering, rediscovering who you are, and sometimes realizing you don't even know who that is anymore.
- 2:13SPEAKER_00: You know, you've invested five, 10, 15, 20, maybe longer years into this relationship, into this version of a life where everything, every plan, every decision, every routine, every dream was wrapped up in this partnership being part of your life, and now it's gone.
- 2:35SPEAKER_00: And no one really tells you what it's like to rebuild your life from scratch, to wake up in a space, in a life, in a world, in a version of your life that feels really familiar in so many ways, and yet also completely foreign.
- 2:57SPEAKER_00: To feel both grief and relief in the same breath, to question who you are without this other person, what you want, and what your hopes, dreams are, and who you'll become, right?
- 3:11SPEAKER_00: So, this episode we're going to dive into some of the hard truths about starting over, the things that you can't prepare for, the feelings and experiences no one warns you about, and the raw real work of creating a new life on your own terms.
- 3:34SPEAKER_00: It's probably going to be a bit of a ramble, but let's dive in.
- 3:38SPEAKER_00: And I want to start with a question.
- 3:41SPEAKER_00: And that question is what was really holding you in that relationship?
- 3:48SPEAKER_00: What was really holding you there?
- 3:51SPEAKER_00: What was keeping you stuck?
- 3:52SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when a relationship ends, we go back over it, over it, over it on loop, and we get stuck in the story of it.
- 4:02SPEAKER_00: We can also tip into self-blame, we stayed too long, we didn't try hard enough.
- 4:07SPEAKER_00: But one thing that really keeps you stuck, so many of my clients kind of beat themselves up about how long they stayed and why they stayed.
- 4:16SPEAKER_00: And the thing that comes up time and again is the concept of sunk cost.
- 4:20SPEAKER_00: And I know I've spoken about it on the podcast before.
- 4:23SPEAKER_00: You know, you've invested so much into this relationship, so much of yourself, so much of your heart, so much time, effort, energy into holding this relationship together, into fixing it, into doing all the things, and you don't want to throw that away.
- 4:39SPEAKER_00: You don't want all of that to be wasted.
- 4:42SPEAKER_00: But the years you've spent already in and on the relationship don't actually justify more time.
- 4:50SPEAKER_00: They don't mean you should stay longer.
- 4:53SPEAKER_00: Yes, you've already invested all of that time, effort, energy.
- 4:56SPEAKER_00: That is gone.
- 4:58SPEAKER_00: You can never get that back.
- 5:00SPEAKER_00: You can't rewind and reuse your time differently.
- 5:04SPEAKER_00: So don't sacrifice even more.
- 5:07SPEAKER_00: And don't, if you're already out, don't beat yourself up for the time and effort that you put in.
- 5:15SPEAKER_00: Sunk cost thinking keeps you stuck in limbo.
- 5:19SPEAKER_00: Throwing good time, energy, money, or investment after bad, waiting to get back what you've put in, waiting for return on investment.
- 5:27SPEAKER_00: It's a myth and it's a trap.
- 5:29SPEAKER_00: So recognize that the time you spent is gone.
- 5:34SPEAKER_00: It's lost to you.
- 5:35SPEAKER_00: And that's not all bad, but rehashing it, going over it can be harmful, can keep you stuck.
- 5:44SPEAKER_00: You can't get that time back.
- 5:45SPEAKER_00: And sitting in this spiral of thinking after the relationship ends is not helpful to your healing or moving you forward.
- 5:54SPEAKER_00: But it's common to go back over and over the story.
- 5:58SPEAKER_00: The effort you put in and either wish you'd done more or given less.
- 6:02SPEAKER_00: And so instead, I would encourage you to ask, would I choose this relationship again today?
- 6:10SPEAKER_00: If it was offered to me on a plate, would I choose this relationship?
- 6:14SPEAKER_00: And also, did the relationship support the future I want for myself?
- 6:20SPEAKER_00: So it's switching your thinking to rear view mirror and thinking about the future.
- 6:27SPEAKER_00: The next thing that can surprise you or one after the breakup of a long-term relationship is grief.
- 6:39SPEAKER_00: It's expected, but your grief might, and in fact, probably will hit harder or in different ways than you think it will or than you expect.
- 6:52SPEAKER_00: You know, even if you think you shouldn't feel this much, it's all part of letting go of that long-term relationship, that dream.
- 7:00SPEAKER_00: You will probably grieve more than you can expect, more than you know, and you might grieve things you didn't even realize were part of the process.
- 7:10SPEAKER_00: You know, you might grieve the person you hoped they would become.
- 7:15SPEAKER_00: You might grieve the relationship you believed in.
- 7:20SPEAKER_00: You might grieve the version of you that trusted this person with all of your secrets, the earlier version of you.
- 7:28SPEAKER_00: You might grieve the person, the version of you who isn't hurt and heartbroken.
- 7:34SPEAKER_00: You might grieve the version of you that you had to let go of in order to end the relationship or to leave the relationship or move on from the ending of the relationship.
- 7:46SPEAKER_00: You might grieve the future version of you, who you thought you'd be.
- 7:51SPEAKER_00: And of course, the life you thought you'd be living, the life you thought you would have together.
- 7:56SPEAKER_00: Maybe you'll grieve the life your kids might have had if things were different, or the children that you won't have together.
- 8:06SPEAKER_00: You might grieve the us that actually never eventuated.
- 8:12SPEAKER_00: You might grieve that story that you'd already written for yourself because we do, right?
- 8:18SPEAKER_00: We write our own story ahead of time.
- 8:21SPEAKER_00: Remember though, you are grieving a person, a relationship, a future that perhaps wasn't ever reality.
- 8:32SPEAKER_00: So it's about letting go of who they are, who they really are, not who you hope they'd become.
- 8:41SPEAKER_00: It's about separating who they are in reality from what you hoped they could become, and it's about accepting where you are and what's coming versus what you hoped would come for you.
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: It's about finding a way to switch your focus to what you want to create in your future now that you actually have a clean slate.
- 9:05SPEAKER_00: It's not minimizing the grief at all to then focus forward.
- 9:12SPEAKER_00: What's next for me?
- 9:13SPEAKER_00: You can hold both grief and a future vision for yourself.
- 9:19SPEAKER_00: Something else that often comes up with clients, with people in my community when they've left or are disentangling from a long-term relationship is that there's discomfort in self-discovery.
- 9:36SPEAKER_00: You know, there's all this lovely stuff, yes, and I talk about it a lot, I know, but there's actually real discomfort in self-discovery, in answering the question, who am I without this person?
- 9:51SPEAKER_00: Who am I without this relationship?
- 9:55SPEAKER_00: Many, many of us will have something of an identity crisis when a long-term relationship comes to an end, a dark night of the soul moment or season.
- 10:06SPEAKER_00: Who am I without this?
- 10:08SPEAKER_00: Who am I without this relationship?
- 10:11SPEAKER_00: You've been a we for so long.
- 10:14SPEAKER_00: Now you have to relearn being I.
- 10:16SPEAKER_00: What you like, what you want, what you need, what you desire, what you hope for, as well as what you don't.
- 10:23SPEAKER_00: Who am I without this person as partner?
- 10:27SPEAKER_00: And who am I without this version of life?
- 10:29SPEAKER_00: Who am I without this relationship?
- 10:31SPEAKER_00: You know, you built an entire existence around being connected in relationship with this other person.
- 10:38SPEAKER_00: It is time now to reclaim you, time to unravel and uncover who you really are and what you most want for yourself.
- 10:47SPEAKER_00: And while that sounds really great and amazing, and in so many ways it is, it's also really hard and uncomfortable to create a life that doesn't hold space for the version of you that you were in, that version of you that you were in that relationship, who doesn't that doesn't hold space for that other person.
- 11:12SPEAKER_00: But flipping it to the to the light side, you do get to create a life that's exclusively yours, one that doesn't have to be moulded by other, one that doesn't shrink to fit another, one that might include someone in the future, but for now, you get to create your ideal version of life, and it's important to sit in that, even if it feels uncomfortable, and resist the urge to soften it, to soothe the hard edges of it by jumping straight into a new relationship, right?
- 11:49SPEAKER_00: It is really important to sit in the discomfort of self-discovery.
- 11:55SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
- 11:57SPEAKER_00: What is important to me?
- 11:59SPEAKER_00: Who am I without this relationship and without this person?
- 12:03SPEAKER_00: Who do I get to be now and into the future?
- 12:09SPEAKER_00: Another thing that comes up as long-term relationships unravel, come to an ending, is judgment.
- 12:18SPEAKER_00: And I of course I'm gonna say fuck the judgment.
- 12:22SPEAKER_00: Everyone will have a story about you, your relationship, your separation, your ending relationship, your divorce.
- 12:30SPEAKER_00: Everyone will have a story, but that's not your story.
- 12:34SPEAKER_00: People will have a story, they'll have an opinion, they'll judge, especially if you're choosing to leave and you're choosing to leave that good person, that decent human being.
- 12:45SPEAKER_00: You don't have to justify.
- 12:48SPEAKER_00: You don't owe anyone an in-depth explanation or explanation at all.
- 12:54SPEAKER_00: So let them have their story.
- 12:57SPEAKER_00: Don't feel that you need to defend your decision.
- 13:01SPEAKER_00: You don't need a dramatic reason or something bad to happen.
- 13:05SPEAKER_00: You don't need permission to leave.
- 13:08SPEAKER_00: Trust yourself, even if others don't understand.
- 13:13SPEAKER_00: Choose you, choose freedom, choose authenticity, choose you, and don't worry about the judgment.
- 13:20SPEAKER_00: Easy for me to sit here and say, but there is a lot of wasted time spent worrying about what other people think if you were the one to choose to leave to end the relationship.
- 13:38SPEAKER_00: Guilt is another powerful I'm gonna say season.
- 13:44SPEAKER_00: It's not just a moment, right?
- 13:46SPEAKER_00: And after a long-term relationship ends, guilt might show up in ways that are unexpected, and you might need to break the cycle of guilt.
- 13:57SPEAKER_00: You know, perhaps you feel guilty for not feeling sad enough.
- 14:03SPEAKER_00: You're not alone there.
- 14:05SPEAKER_00: Even if you didn't choose to end it, oftentimes there is relief and relief that some the other person had the strength and courage to rip the band-aid off.
- 14:17SPEAKER_00: Um, and you might feel guilty for not feeling sad enough.
- 14:21SPEAKER_00: You might feel guilty for your part in breaking down the relationship.
- 14:26SPEAKER_00: You might feel guilty about fallout for your ex, for your kids, for your family.
- 14:31SPEAKER_00: Guilt will most likely show up, probably show up in some form, and that may be different at different times, different seasons.
- 14:40SPEAKER_00: But one story, one powerful story that comes up regularly is feeling guilty for being either being relieved or not being sad enough about the relationship ending.
- 14:52SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing, right?
- 14:54SPEAKER_00: I've talked about it before on the podcast about the snap.
- 14:57SPEAKER_00: The snap comes.
- 14:58SPEAKER_00: You've bent and bent and bent and bent like a green twig until bang, you snap.
- 15:04SPEAKER_00: You just know it's done, you're done, it's over.
- 15:07SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, in that moment, you can exhale, you can breathe a little easier.
- 15:12SPEAKER_00: You realize you've been holding your breath for so long, holding on to this relationship, trying to fix it, save it, but now you can finally breathe.
- 15:23SPEAKER_00: And then the guilt spills in, right?
- 15:25SPEAKER_00: You'll feel guilty either for ending it or guilty for being relieved that the other person ended it, guilty for not being devastated or sadder.
- 15:33SPEAKER_00: But relief, that relief tells you something.
- 15:35SPEAKER_00: It tells you it's the right decision, whether you made it, whether they made it.
- 15:40SPEAKER_00: And guilt can just be the tendrils of an unhappy, dysfunctional, or codependent relationship, old conditioning or good girl conditioning hanging on to you.
- 15:53SPEAKER_00: Guilt doesn't make the decision wrong, but that relief, that relief is validation.
- 16:00SPEAKER_00: So release yourself from the guilt, it's actually not supporting who you're becoming.
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: You can allow both guilt and relief to coexist, right?
- 16:11SPEAKER_00: The next thing I wanted to touch on about life after a long-term relationship is loneliness versus alone.
- 16:20SPEAKER_00: And I've talked about it before a lot, right?
- 16:23SPEAKER_00: Learning the difference or feeling the difference, really, between loneliness and alone changes everything.
- 16:33SPEAKER_00: You already know loneliness because you were likely lonely while still in that relationship.
- 16:39SPEAKER_00: You know loneliness very, very well.
- 16:42SPEAKER_00: But this experience is different.
- 16:45SPEAKER_00: Now you might be lonely, yes, but you're alone, and so you're lonely with agency, with choice, with freedom.
- 16:56SPEAKER_00: So alone is a ticket, alone gives you agency, choice, freedom.
- 17:03SPEAKER_00: It's not necessarily a bad thing, and again, circling back to that relief piece, often there's relief in being alone, right?
- 17:14SPEAKER_00: I was in conversation with a group of women yesterday, and we were talking about permanent part-time in terms of dating, and one of them said, Oh, I just love a permanent part-time husband.
- 17:24SPEAKER_00: I really love it when he goes away for traveling, right?
- 17:28SPEAKER_00: So it for work, traveling for work.
- 17:31SPEAKER_00: It's a similar thing on a broader, bigger scale.
- 17:37SPEAKER_00: She is relieved when he's not in the house and he's gone for a few days traveling.
- 17:41SPEAKER_00: They're happy, they're in a happy marriage.
- 17:44SPEAKER_00: Um, but she still feels that relief.
- 17:47SPEAKER_00: And that is what my clients experience.
- 17:50SPEAKER_00: This relief at being alone.
- 17:53SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's hard, yes.
- 17:55SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's lonely, sometimes it's challenging, but there's also power in alone.
- 18:03SPEAKER_00: So it's about holding yourself through this loneliness because that becomes a path back to yourself, right?
- 18:11SPEAKER_00: Sitting in the discomfort of loneliness and alone allows us time, space to discover, rediscover, reconnect who to who we are, right?
- 18:21SPEAKER_00: So don't fill all of your time with noise, distractions, people, stuff.
- 18:26SPEAKER_00: Sit in the loneliness and allow it to lead you back to yourself.
- 18:34SPEAKER_00: The next thing I want to touch on is self-doubt, because self-doubt will show up absolutely in life after ending a long-term relationship, and you'll still move forward anyway.
- 18:49SPEAKER_00: You'll doubt, you'll question yourself, and you'll still move forward.
- 18:55SPEAKER_00: You'll doubt yourself maybe a lot.
- 18:57SPEAKER_00: You'll wonder if you made the right decision.
- 19:01SPEAKER_00: You'll question if you've made the biggest mistake, you'll doubt your ability to make solid decisions moving forward about almost anything.
- 19:10SPEAKER_00: You'll question and doubt your ability yourself in all sorts of ways.
- 19:15SPEAKER_00: And if it is questioning and doubting your decision to leave, I would encourage you to write down why you left.
- 19:24SPEAKER_00: Write down all of the hard, heavy, challenging parts of the relationship.
- 19:30SPEAKER_00: Not to revisit them and rehash them and go over and over and over them, but as a reminder when your doubt gets loud.
- 19:38SPEAKER_00: Because you will, we all do, you will look back with fondness, romanticize the past, you'll focus on only the good, happy memories, and you'll wonder.
- 19:48SPEAKER_00: You'll doubt.
- 19:49SPEAKER_00: You might even wonder if you should go back.
- 19:52SPEAKER_00: But trust the version of you who made this choice.
- 19:55SPEAKER_00: Trust her knowing.
- 19:57SPEAKER_00: Don't let that doubt or fear pull you back.
- 20:00SPEAKER_00: Trust the version of you you're becoming.
- 20:04SPEAKER_00: And if you find you are doubting and second guessing all sorts of decisions going forward, day to day, simple decisions and questions, trust in your ability to make sound decisions for yourself.
- 20:22SPEAKER_00: Look for evidence where you've made good decisions for yourself and lean into that.
- 20:28SPEAKER_00: Lean into the version of you that you know has made good decisions in the past.
- 20:37SPEAKER_00: The last thing uh, or second last thing actually, I want to share here is that freedom can be both terrifying and liberating.
- 20:49SPEAKER_00: The space without this relationship, without this person feels huge until you realize that space is all yours.
- 21:02SPEAKER_00: At first, that freedom, no one to check in with, no one asking for accountability, no one to be responsible for, only you can feel destabilizing, unsettling.
- 21:13SPEAKER_00: It can feel really unsteady before it starts to feel good.
- 21:18SPEAKER_00: It can feel terrifying before it starts to feel true.
- 21:23SPEAKER_00: But it can be both terrifying and liberating.
- 21:27SPEAKER_00: You might be one who rushes into the freedom, trying all the things, getting back out there dating, doing all the stuff, right?
- 21:34SPEAKER_00: Or you might panic, your nervous system just overwhelmed by all of it, by the infinite possibility.
- 21:42SPEAKER_00: You don't know how to be or what to do with yourself.
- 21:46SPEAKER_00: But lean into that freedom slowly if if you need it to be slow, bit by bit, and it will feel like an opening, like a coming home, like a waking up again.
- 21:57SPEAKER_00: It might start to feel easier, it might.
- 22:00SPEAKER_00: Start even to feel peaceful.
- 22:01SPEAKER_00: If it feels scary or overwhelming, it's an invitation.
- 22:05SPEAKER_00: Lean into that discomfort, the discomfort of your newly acquired freedom, and create a life shaped by your wants.
- 22:15SPEAKER_00: Claim that version of you that exists beyond the relationship, beyond that other person.
- 22:22SPEAKER_00: And live as you, as yourself, not you in relation to them.
- 22:28SPEAKER_00: But know this that freedom does often feel unsafe for our nervous system at first.
- 22:36SPEAKER_00: And then it becomes more familiar.
- 22:39SPEAKER_00: Then we can trust in it, and then it feels like home.
- 22:42SPEAKER_00: Then it feels liberating.
- 22:47SPEAKER_00: You get to reclaim your time and energy.
- 22:50SPEAKER_00: And this ties into the concept of freedom, right?
- 22:53SPEAKER_00: You get to decide what and who will have your focus now.
- 22:58SPEAKER_00: You get to choose where you invest your life.
- 23:03SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest shifts about this isn't just the emotional shift of ending a relationship.
- 23:09SPEAKER_00: It's about how you spend your time, who gets to share it.
- 23:13SPEAKER_00: For years, if it's been a long-term relationship, your energy has gone elsewhere.
- 23:19SPEAKER_00: It's gone into the relationship, perhaps into managing someone else's needs, navigating expectations, keeping the peace, trying to hold it all together.
- 23:28SPEAKER_00: And now you get to decide.
- 23:31SPEAKER_00: You get to protect your time, set boundaries, and invest in the things that actually light you up.
- 23:38SPEAKER_00: You get to say no to commitments, connections, conversations, or people that pull you back into old patterns.
- 23:47SPEAKER_00: You actually get to prioritize and uncover, relearn what feeds you, what fuels you, what brings you joy, not what depletes you, right?
- 24:00SPEAKER_00: And this is where freedom really starts to feel like yours as you consciously choose where to invest your time, your energy, your focus.
- 24:09SPEAKER_00: You'll notice those small kinds of shifts, more clarity, more confidence, more space to grow.
- 24:16SPEAKER_00: This is your life lived by your rules.
- 24:19SPEAKER_00: Um, and for perhaps the first time in a really, really long time, it's a life that is all yours.
- 24:27SPEAKER_00: And in closing, I'm gonna circle back to something that I say often life after a long-term relationship is about choosing, choosing you, even when it's messy, even when it's scary, even if other people disagree, you get to choose you because you are your most important investment, right?
- 24:50SPEAKER_00: Choosing yourself isn't always easy.
- 24:52SPEAKER_00: It's brave, it's messy, it goes against years, generations really of ingrained, embodied learning to look after others, to look after our people.
- 25:03SPEAKER_00: And in repeating choosing ourselves, it grows.
- 25:09SPEAKER_00: It grows into everything you need it to be.
- 25:12SPEAKER_00: Choosing you becomes a habit.
- 25:14SPEAKER_00: Centering yourself in your daily decisions becomes normalized, it becomes default.
- 25:21SPEAKER_00: Not to be selfish or self-absorbed, but to truly make yourself the center of your own life.
- 25:29SPEAKER_00: And this is the most liberating part of life after the ending of a long-term relationship.
- 25:37SPEAKER_00: So remember this for those days when it feels hard, when you need a reminder that your courage matters, because choosing you, centering yourself in your own life is always, always worth it.
- 25:51SPEAKER_00: I'll drop a link in the show notes for uh my free choose you guidebook.
- 25:57SPEAKER_00: If this is some work that you feel like is important for you to do, choosing ourselves is always worth it.
- 26:05SPEAKER_00: And I think the biggest gift of life after divorce, life after the ending of a long-term relationship is that you get to center yourself in your own life and choose you, unapologetically, unashamedly, joyfully choose you.
- 26:23SPEAKER_00: As always, thank you for being here.
- 26:25SPEAKER_00: I hope you've taken something from today's episode.
- 26:28SPEAKER_00: And if you know somebody who would benefit from listening, please, please share this with them.
- 26:35SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.
- 26:37SPEAKER_00: I'm Sally Ann Hartnell, divorce coach and strategist, and you've been listening to Reflect, Reclaim and Liberate.
- 26:43SPEAKER_00: You can follow me on Instagram at Reflect Coaching, and if you can think of anyone who would love or benefit from listening to this episode, please share it with them.
- 26:51SPEAKER_00: I'd also be so grateful if you would follow and review the podcast so we can get it in the ears of a whole lot more people just like you who are ready to reclaim and liberate themselves in life and love.
- 27:02SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll join me next week for another episode of Reflect, Reclaim and Liberate.
- 27:07SPEAKER_00: Until then,