Shattered records for most sales and most views, Adele has done it again with her latest hit song; Hello. Love songs are designed to tug at the heartstrings of our soul; reaching down to our deepest emotions and strongest affections. We hear them and are touched; in one way or another. Why? Because love is the strongest power on earth and when it’s blocked; it causes pain. Unfortunately this pain is all too familiar because we live in a world of uncertainty; companies downsize, loved ones die prematurely, romantic relationships that were supposed to be forever come to painful, abrupt ends leaving us with shattered hearts.
Loss hurts- a lot. There is however one way to get to the other side of Adele’s Hello, to get to your Goodbye, and that is to tackle the only thing you have the power to control; your mind. You are the only one who can stop the bleeding. Amazing shifts happen in life when you decide to take control over what you do have power over rather than trying to control what you don’t. As painful as it may be to release this person, situation, or mindset, it has to start with you deciding to let it go. Investing emotionally in a dead relationship yields a zero chance of return. If it was meant to be in your life, it would still be there.
After that bold, courageous decision to let go, you get to Goodbye by choosing to take three profound steps:
- Grieve the loss
- Rebuild what was shattered
- Design your new dream
Grief is necessary, healthy and intended to be a temporary condition designed to make you whole again. That being said, grief does not have to have a vise grip on your life. Look at it this way: imagine you are heading to the beach for a long awaited weekend of rest and relaxation. You are driving down an open highway making great time with blue skies above. Suddenly out of nowhere you have to hit the brakes; there’s a line of cars at a standstill and everything stops to an abrupt halt. You are stuck; you’ve run into road construction. What’s next? Will you pull off to the shoulder of the road and stay there indefinitely, waiting for the construction to end? Will you wallow in your sorrows with Hello on repeat? Of course not, road construction could take months or years.
As painfully slow as the construction process is, as frustrated/angry/disappointed you may feel, you stay on the road to get to the other side. It’s no different with the process of grieving and rebuilding. It shows up like road construction; repairing what is broken, fractured, cracked or shattered and making it better. You keep on going so that you can get to the other side-a better, stronger, more courageous version of yourself.
What adventures are waiting for you on the other side of Hello? You will never know unless you get there. It’s time to change the song, create your new dream, and stay on the road. The construction zone is almost over; a brand new start is around the bend.
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