7 Steps for Healing after Betrayal

There’s just no way around it: betrayals hurt. Whether you’ve been betrayed by a partner or a friend, it’s difficult to recover. 

There is good news however, there are things you can do to help speed up your recovery so you can move on with your life and even start looking forward to a brighter future. 

So how can you heal your heart, body, and spirit after a betrayal? 

These strategies will help: 

1. Recognize the betrayal. You might try to block out the betrayal so you don’t have to think about it. However, it’s healthier to accept the betrayal and deal with it.

○     Trying to ignore a betrayal traps everything inside you and can stop you from healing.

○     It’s important to address the issues and learn to manage them. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. You’ll learn to move past the betrayal, especially if you take action to help heal yourself.

2. Forgive yourself and others. Forgiveness is crucial to healing. Forgiving someone is really all about you - not the person who betrayed you. You’re the one who benefits the most. The other person doesn’t even need to know.

○     Forgive yourself, your past mistakes, and the person who betrayed you.

3. Avoid using betrayal as revenge. Are you thinking about betraying the person who hurt you? You may be tempted to seek revenge after you’re hurt, but you risk hurting yourself even more.

○     This type of thought process is dangerous and can prevent you from healing. Revenge isn’t the answer. It simply adds more negativity to your life.

○     Revenge can trap you in an unhealthy cycle with the person who hurt you in the first place. First they hurt you, then you hurt them, then they hurt you back, then you hurt them again. Where does it end?

4. Connect with others. You may benefit from connecting with others who have been hurt. Consider support groups or group therapy.

○     By talking about the past, you can learn to heal the wounds of betrayal. You can see how others have overcome their pain and use their advice.

5. Remove negative people. You may be better off by cutting off all contact with the betrayer and other negative people in your life. Sometimes, it helps to remove these toxic people in order to regain your strength and heal.

○     Negative people can affect your healing process. They can serve as constant reminders of the pain and betrayal. You’ll feel lighter and healthier without them.

○     If it’s not feasible to remove them from your life, limit your contact with them as much as possible.

6. Learn to control your feelings. It’s normal to cry and feel anger after a betrayal. However, if you dwell on these feelings, they can dominate your life. It’s important to express your pain and then learn to move on.

○     A physical action that helps you release these emotions is to write them all on paper, and then tear up or burn the paper to destroy it. You can also imagine that they blow away in the wind. Plus see below for another creative exercise for moving through those emotions.

○     If you can control your emotions, then you can more easily see the beauty of the world around you.

7. Learn to trust again. After a betrayal, you may have a difficult time trusting another person again. You may feel that you can’t trust anyone because they’re capable of hurting you.

○     Over time, it’s important to learn to trust again and reach out to others.

○     You don’t have to go back to the person who betrayed you. However, trusting new people can help you heal.

○     Trusting again can show you that not everyone wants to hurt you. It can teach you to share your emotions again.

○     Trust can also help you build new and exciting relationships.

Past betrayals don’t have to control your mind and emotions. Taking action to help heal yourself speeds up your recovery and helps you move on. Soon enough, instead of looking backward, you’ll find yourself looking forward to the good things to come.

This week’s Creative Exercise

Betrayal often comes with a mix of emotions that you may not even understand.

This week we will delve into understanding those emotions.

Pick your favourite art supplies, it could be a pencil and paper, it could be clay or play-doh, it could be paint. Anything that you can use to express yourself.

Start by listening to the meditation above to get in touch with your feelings. 

Now sitting in front of your supplies, with no judgment, start to create. Create your feelings. Don’t think about what you are creating, think about your emotions and how you are feeling.

Use color, symbols, words, shapes, to express your emotions, and they may change throughout your piece.

It doesn't matter what the final product looks like. It is about feeling your emotions and releasing those emotions into your piece.

No video this week, you’ve got this.  I don't want to decide for you how you feel. Feel into it.

Have an Amazingly Creative Day,

Larissa