Thanks for the update pigpen. Though we did not interact much, I followed your story closely. Good to see a familiar name pop up. I look forward to watching that TED talk. Enjoy the rest of your travels!
I watched the talk PP and thought it was great - inspirational and heartfelt. You really managed to convey that you understand what people go through and why - and also how another path can be taken. Thanks for sharing that...so, who would have thought you'd be doing a TED talk 18+ months ago when you first started posting!
Good luck with everything going forwards :)xx
T 13 M 7 Me 48 H 46 SS 15 BD 7.14 PA D final 5.16 (H filed)
We receive & we lose, and must try to achieve gratitude & embrace with whole hearts whatever of life that remains after the losses - Dubus
Thank you everyone, I appreciate the kind words and support. That talk was a journey in itself, I was rehearsing it at times about 500 yards from where I took my STBX on our first date. Talk about having to deal with pain while practicing preaching how to deal with pain!
Please, please, please know how incredibly vital this board was for me and my journey, well being, and actualization. Wonka, Zues, Sotto, V, Cadet, Jelly, Mona, and more were literal lifesavers. I can't thank you all enough. Even Mr. Bond with his one word replies was vital.
I'll say it again - if you're on here, LISTEN to the vets, work everyday to better yourself, and never stop believing. You simply never know what's going to happen.
Oddly enough I've directed so many people with WAS's to this board and only one that I know of took me up on it. I'd say to them, "This place saved my life. I mean that. The reason I'm not drinking, getting high, or hating women is because I was challenged on a daily basis to better myself, to stay positive and to believe in a process bigger than myself. Plus I got slapped around when I needed it."
I love you guys and gals, and truly hope everyone finds the same peace I was able to. It's been a long road, but one colored by so many beautiful people.
Big hug, PP
M 39 W 36 T5 M3 BD - 1/15 Separated - Same Day Served 9/15 D finalized 6/17
What parts of the process and advice resonated so much with you?
It really does seem to have grabbed you in a way it does not others.....
Surfer.
Great question Surfer. Are you a surfer btw? Surfing was a huge part of my recovery through all of this!
I can sum up the process and advice that helped the most this way, I think I wrote this story out for someone on here but looking at it like this helped me immensely. I call it "The Two Island Theory."
Island 1 had my W, my M, and my old life on it. I LOVED that island, but it wasn't the best place for me. I thought it was when I lived there but I was overlooking a lot of dysfunction. But I was so heavily invested in living there that I was blind to so much. That blindness made me fight and fight and fight to stay living on Island 1. I had made a commitment to be there, had my life energy, my time, and my finances invested there. Leaving there would be excruciating on so many levels I just couldn't do it.
That being said, I had been kicked off that island with BD. When my WAW left, that island was no longer my home (as Cadet says, at BD things are usually done). The more I fought to get back on the island, the more my W wanted me off of it. She had already moved to her own little fantasy island elsewhere so I was fighting to be there alone or to remain in the memory of it. Mostly in the fantasy of the memory of it. The glorification of it. My mind would play all kinds of tricks with me, changing memories to only reflect the positive, having me use any and every interaction with my W to secretly try to trick her back onto Island 1. And the pain, oh the pain of not being there with her drove me nearly crazy. I NEEDED to be back there with her, at least the old me did.
Buuuuut. When I came on here, the advice was "The only way to get back with your W is to walk completely away from Island 1. To do this, you have to do it down to your core, not just do it in name, but to live it, to breathe it, to fight day in and day out to authentically walk away from it." That's some impossible chit to do, but I had to do it. We all do.
I did it by creating Island #2. That was an entirely new life for me. Sobriety, men's groups, a change of my business, meditation, getting back to surfing, starting a blog, therapy, seminars, constant audiobooks - a rebirth of sorts over and over and over again. The old PP had to go. How he thought, how he reacted to things, how he lived. The new PP had to be born of new experiences - not dissociating from pain, being honest, finding new friends, acquaintances, a new tribe. Changing my DNA through new experiences. Leaving my comfort zone so far behind me I had no idea where the hell it was. Every situation was terrifying, but into them I walked, day after day.
Everyday I would ask myself if I was building Island 2, or staying stuck on Island 1. Was I pretending to be on Island 2 while still secretly living on 1? Was I telling people I had moved on without really moving on?
The key was to fill up my new life (Island 2) with new experiences, with so much richness, so much excitement about the future, so much wonder about what could possibly happen next, and (here's the key) so much GRATITUDE for what I still did have, that I simply stopped thinking about Island 1. I viewed it as my old life while a new one was doing everything in it's power to come out of me. Working with a Jungian therapist helped with this, as did reading stories of people who had similarly lost everything and then rebuilt their lives in exactly the way they wanted to. Cultivating curiosity about where this all may lead and living in that curiosity was a game changer. Suddenly my life went from "all loss" to "holy cow, maybe this all could be leading me somewhere I never would have gotten without it...let's hang out and find out."
Really Surfer, it's about listening to the advice you get here with a mind that says, "How can I take what I'm being told here and live it fully?" as opposed to "How can I take what I'm being told here and use the painless parts of it, or as little as possible, while secretly hoping that doing so gets me my spouse back?" You have to be willing to throw yourself into the unknown day after day after day.
Cadet says to use the time you're given - are you using every single day as an opportunity to better yourself? That's action, not just thought. What actions are you taking day in and day out? Are you relentless about them? Are you the new 5am regular at the gym? Are you getting counseling? Have you hired coaches if you can afford them? How is your life different than how it was in your M? Are you going to meet ups, learning how to salsa, learning a new language, an instrument, changing your wardrobe, etc. How much ACTION are you taking?
Action is the key. That and letting go. Letting go every day. Of the possibility of reconciliation, of the desire to be with your S again, any of it. ALL of the success stories I read had one theme in common - they were done. They had moved on. They were dating someone else and loving it. They had moved across the country. Etc. Then and only then did things shift. It's a double edge sword, to get something back you want you have to stop wanting it! That's a challenge of spiritual magnitude my friend.
Now instead of wanting my W back, I want an incredible partnership. I want to know my partner has my back in all areas. I want exceptional communication. I want us to talk about the hard chit, the stuff that no one else is willing to discuss. I want to be able to lay my entire soul out on the table and say, "This is me. Here are great parts, here are the dark parts, here is the stuff I'm still confused about, here are the potential pitfalls. This is all of me, let's see you."
The type of person I'm going to co-create with will look at everything on that table and say in return, "Awesome, thank you for sharing all of that. I may get scared but I'm not going anywhere. I'm in this especially on the hard days. Btw, here's me. Here's what I've got in my soul backpack."
If that person is my STBXW so be it. I doubt it, she hasn't done the work I have. But if she steps up, we can talk about it. BUT, that's the bar I'm holding for a future relationship. The future Mrs. PP is going to have to be one hell of a woman, because she's getting one hell of a man. No longer am I after just one woman, my STBXW, now I'm after that partner, whomever she may be.
I hope this helps.
PP
M 39 W 36 T5 M3 BD - 1/15 Separated - Same Day Served 9/15 D finalized 6/17
I watched the talk PP and thought it was great - inspirational and heartfelt. You really managed to convey that you understand what people go through and why - and also how another path can be taken. Thanks for sharing that...so, who would have thought you'd be doing a TED talk 18+ months ago when you first started posting!
Good luck with everything going forwards :)xx
Thank you Sotto!!
And no, no no, I NEVER would have imagined standing on that stage and delivering that talk when I first joined up. I couldn't even imagine making it through a day. I never would have imagined hospice changing me the way it did, spending a month in the dark, any of it. This has been such a magical ride and one that I'm so grateful for. I truly hope people read this and realize they too can change their lives, and that if they make space, magic can come in and replace the pain they're going through.
Big hug to you!
M 39 W 36 T5 M3 BD - 1/15 Separated - Same Day Served 9/15 D finalized 6/17
PP, it is so good to hear an update from you. I watched your TED talk a few weeks ago (I watched 3x!) and it resonated so strongly with me. I am so proud of you, you are making it, creating a new life, turning your pain into growth, and inspiring so many people. I want you to know that back in our "darker days" there were things you said to me that stuck, that pulled me through, that I still think about, and I thank you for that.
I will post my own update one day, not quite ready to yet.
I really just wanted to say hello to you PP and that I know you are f'ing awesome.
Much love to you, and Mona's party bus is still going strong, you know how to find us.
My name has changed a few times, Pho, Fo, you know me.
