Dear World,

Being ordered to #stayathome and confront your own thoughts and feelings went really dark, really quickly.

︎

Dealing with heartbreak during a pandemic is hard. When my partner broke up with me during the first week of lockdown, two days before my birthday, I went through a really rough, unstable period. I felt like I couldn’t talk about my problems; the relationship, the identity crisis that conveniently followed (ha) and on top of that, there was no normality in any aspect of my life to bounce back up from. Under the lockdown laws, I couldn’t seek comfort in a friend’s hug, distract myself with school or the gym or even go for a drive around the block to clear my head. Life was really thrown into chaos.

Being ordered to #stayathome and confront your own thoughts and feelings went really dark, really quickly. Having to put a strong face in front of my parents didn’t make it easier either.

Fast forward a couple of months later, I can say I’m getting better now. The internet can be a wonderful thing and I definitely have to thank YouTube – the yoga and guided meditation videos for stress really helped. So too did the TED Talk videos on self development.

In a way, it was good that I was forced to face the heartbreak. It hurt because I was peeling back the bandaid but now that I have, in hindsight, I now know the relationship was really toxic, a bit of gaslighting was going on, and I compromised a lot of myself.

If I had to give advice to anyone in my situation: my number one tip would be just talk to somebody. You’re not as alone as you might think. Opening up to my sister to share my experience on Dear World really helped me feel lighter.

I hope others will too. 


Sincerely,

Still Growing