Seeing the Light on the Other Side of the Pain
Life’s disappointments come in many shapes and sizes, to people of all ages, but at the core is the same principle. Disappointment is the difference between your expectations and reality. Coping with disappointment is similar to coping with loss. Depending on the depth of your disappointment, you might experience a variety of emotions — anger, hurt, jealousy, sadness — over the course of a few hours, days, weeks, or months. When you cope with disappointment in healthy ways, you can reach a point where you not only accept it, but also learn and grow from it.
1. Allow yourself to feel the loss. One of the worst ways to handle disappointment is to deny your feelings, hoping they will go away if you refuse to acknowledge them. Buried feelings eventually surface in unhealthy ways, such as physical illness, addiction, or misplaced anger. It is better to accept your feelings, even if they are unpleasant. Remember that you are not alone. Everyone experiences disappointment; it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Read the rest of this entry »



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