I talk about my current process of distancing from a dating relationship that may no longer be serving me...and how you can too.
***Please rate and review the podcast and respond to the poll and episode question (Spotify only) if you'd like to share your thoughts***
BOOK A FREE CALL
https://calendly.com/traciepinnock
Join my email list
https://tphtherapy.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=be02a721b82e4378558515ed3&id=888df392e4
Subscribe to my YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHVUSpAJ869rH817vCwLY3Q
Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/traciepinnock/
Send me an email: [email protected]
*****************************************************
RESOURCES:
Law of Attraction Changed My Life Podcast
https://francescaamber.com/pages/podcast
Michael Diamond Medium
Hey, I'm Tracy Pinnock and welcome to the Bitter to Better podcast, where I talk all things love and life that help women live better after breakups. I'm glad you're here, and let's get into it.
[00:00:26] Unknown:
So what is the Better to Better podcast about? If you listen to my little intro, then you know that it's generally about helping women live better after breakups. On this podcast, I'll be discussing things around healing from and moving on after breakups, separations, divorces, the ending of any romantic relationship, as well as how to date better afterward, and to work on finding out what you need in your life to thrive in all areas. So that's personally your personal, physical, mental, emotional well-being. That's romantically. That's all social relationships in your life. That's parenting.
That's hobbies, career, money, all of these sort of things. And it's not to say that I'm an expert on all of these things such as money and career and things like that, but it's more about the exploratory process of reflecting, meaning question asking yourself questions about the things we want and need in all of these areas of our lives so that we can set up plans in order to achieve them. So I will be here talking about a bunch of things that are impacted after you go through any sort of significant breakup in your life and how to recover from these things or how to recover after the breakup, because breakups can so hugely impact the various aspects of our lives.
Things to note since this is the first episode and we're getting to know each other, I'm also a cisgender heterosexual woman. My pronouns are she, her, hers, and much of what I speak about is from that perspective, though most of what I talk about applies to people in general. So these are just things to know. And from that I am a mom of two boys, a licensed marriage and family therapist, a relationship and dating coach for women, a jack of all trades, master of some, and I'm glad you're here. So this is the first episode, and you may even hear in the background children screaming because I am parked up front of my youngest son's school as a wait to go in to get him.
And I wanted this first episode to be about cleansing one's soul. I think of it as saging your soul, in particular from this place. It's almost like spring cleaning. So we're we're right at the beginning of spring as I speak, 03/23/2023. And, so kind of in the vein of just decluttering, letting go. I also I'm on a binge of the law of attraction changed my life podcast, with, Francesca. Why can't I think of her last name right now? That's not helpful. But it's a great podcast. I I'm gonna do what all the all the great podcast host, do and and say that I'm gonna link it in the show notes. So, hopefully, I do. But, one of the episodes that I recently listened to was her episode on minimalism, decluttering, all of those things, and, you know, the joys of that and the different ways that we, can minimalize. So energetically, what it does for us to, you know, go through our wardrobe and get rid of old clothes that we don't really wear or don't make us feel good, decluttering certain people in your life, which is the inspiration, I would say, for this particular episode for me.
But decluttering the things on your to do list, you know, decluttering the actual objects in your home, books and and CDs. Wait a second. Does anyone does anyone own a CD, now? But, you know, the letting go of, the releasing of physical things, energetic things in order to clear your space, your mind, your head, your body, etcetera. So for me, I have probably for about a week, I'd say, week and a half or so, have been in a decluttering or I should say making space for the type of romantic partner I want to come into my life. And part of how I'm doing this besides the fact that I'm a big proponent of the law of attraction, it is my my faith. It is my spiritual guidance.
So I'm always showing gratitude and working on manifestations. I sometimes do affirmations. I do visualization. I meditate. I do do all of these various things, not everything every day, not everything consistently. I pick and choose what feels right to me at any given time in my life, but I'm big on manifestation, being in the right type of mindset, being in alignment in order to have the things you want in your life come to you. So that's that's just me at baseline at baseline. But right now, specifically, I am trying to clear my my space energetically in the romance and dating realm, to move away from a dating relationship that has been serving me and has been fun and enjoyable, but but I'm starting to recognize that it's not no longer serving me as much and has the potential of turning more negative and really not serving me later.
So I wanted to talk about how I'm doing that. I have been here before in terms of needing to, like, clear my space, of people. I've been here before in way more significant and serious ways. I've had two significant breakups in my life, and they're both, from the fathers of my two children. And they've been very different breakups. One, I kind of left reluctantly. The other and so, like, I I felt like they they ended the relationship, although I agreed sort of thing, where in the other, I actively left the relationship and for very different reasons. But, ultimately, I've had to go through these periods of, like, cleansing my my space and myself and distancing myself and and helping pick myself up off the ground or for that matter, out of deep, deep, dark holes.
And I so I've been here before, and I've been here in way, again, like I said, more significant ways. But this is kind of like a light version of that where I found myself becoming more energetically and emotionally invested in something that I realized that was not to my benefit. And I and I wanna actually be very clear on, like, energetically. Like, I this is not a situation where I've become, like, emotionally, like, really emotionally deeply attached or or involved with someone. But energetically, I recognize that I recognize where I've been directing my energy and where I could be directing my energy.
Part of this has been confirmed by, sorry, recovering from a cold and all that good stuff. Part of this had been confirmed by a recent, reading that I had. So I see a medium named Michael Diamond. A friend of mine was super awesome and got my first set got me my first session last year in 2022 for my birthday, and I'm totally hooked. So I got myself another session just a couple of days ago. And, a lot of the things that Michael talked about, you know, just for confirmation for things I already know or have been sensing or feeling or thinking or considering. And so it's just kind of pushing me, you know, farther along this process of, okay. You need to get some distance from the situation, some space, figure out what place you wanted to hold in your life, all those sort of things.
[00:08:44] Unknown:
Do you like what you're hearing? Are you picking up what I'm putting down? Want to help the pod? If so, please know it's greatly appreciated, and I welcome you to support the Bitter to Better podcast however you can. Might I suggest a few options? First, please rate and review the show on Spotify, Apple podcast, or whatever platform you choose. Next, how about sending this podcast to one friend who you know could use it? This way, she can't say you've never given her anything. If you're really riding with me, talk about the show on social media and tag me. I'm at tracy panach on Instagram. And lastly, if you ever use any products or services I mentioned in the pod, can you tell them Tracy Pinnock from the Bitter to Better podcast sent you? Please and thank you.
[00:09:37] Unknown:
So, boom, let's get right to it. What do I do when I'm trying to clear my life energetically of certain things, particularly people? I do a very concrete disconnect. And what I mean here is right now, I have taken the social media apps off of my phone, so I haven't shut down my social media accounts. I can still access them from a computer or, you know, a web browser. But right now, I have the apps removed from my phone. By the way, I am someone who always has the notifications turned off for my social media. So I don't know. Years ago, I started doing started doing that, so I don't get the red dot. I have a a iPhone, so I don't get the red dot, letting me know that I have something going on on social media. I only know if I go on it, which generally speaking, I'm a daily I'm a person who goes on social media daily, multiple times a day.
Your average, you know, basic bitch. And so when I'm in a period like this, in this current time, I removed the apps off my phone so that I'm less tempted to go and look at them. And, generally, it's kept me from going on them at all other than going on each morning to look up my Moon Omens horoscope, which I've done on the computer, and I read my horoscope, and I close it out, and I move on. If I have if I see an indicator that I have messages, I'll check them because my friends, my sister, we, like, you know, send stuff back and forth. So I check those things and then move on, but I haven't been, like, scrolling through, you know, people's accounts or through off you know, on my my feed or anything like that. And so that helps a lot. And, you know, there and and it's interesting for me that I'm even bothering to do that because, this particular person that I have in mind, we don't communicate a lot through, social media.
We so it's really not even a big part of our interactions, though there is absolutely some interaction through social media. So it's that that there's none at all. But it it definitely also, you know, helps me not think about checking their feed or anything like that. So it's just one, like, immediate go to for me when I know I'm trying to kind of distance, disconnect a bit, and, clear my space. If, you know, a a more even concrete way of doing this is, like, blocking people, like, so that, you know, they can't call you or text you or stuff like that. Besides the fact that me and this person don't text or call talk on the phone like that, the block the reason why I'm not at the point of, like, blocking them because I could block them on the other, like, messaging app that we use, is because I'm not in a place of saying that I want this person out of my life completely.
And so this is an important distinction for me to make, and it's an important part of my reflective process that I'm going through because I'm like, what do what is the nature of the interaction and relationship that I want with this person? And, again, there's no negativity between me and this person at all. So it's really that, like, I don't have the sense of, like, I never want to see their face again or talk to them or anything like that. So right now, blocking is not something that I am interested in doing. But I will say, I am a strong, strong I am a big proponent of blocking people in order to get space and peace everywhere from if they're harassing you all the way to if you just need to help keep yourself from reaching out to them. Or maybe you're not reaching out to them, but they will reach out to you and then that triggers you. Block, block, block, block, block. Understand it doesn't have to be a permanent block. Maybe you decide I'm blocking for a week, for two weeks, for a month, and we'll reassess, you know, later to determine how I feel. But I cannot stress enough this need to block. So blocking on social media, blocking on your phone, unfollowing on social media, removing as many triggers as possible that are within your control. I cannot stress this enough. I go on and on and on with clients that I work with about this because none of this stuff has to be permanent, but it can do wonders in your mental and emotional wellness through experiences such as breakups or trying to, again, cleanse your space and your energy. So block, block, block as much as you need to.
To that point of keeping notifications turned off, I'm currently keeping my phone on do not disturb as much as possible. Now I already have my phone set to automatically go into the sleep function at 9PM as part of my sleep routine, trying to have good sleep hygiene, which are the routines and, habits that we have around sleep and preparing our minds and bodies for rest. But because I'm I'm trying to create distance and kind of cleanse and weed out and all that good stuff, I have my phone on do not disturb, which for me is helpful because it helps me forget about it.
And so what also goes with this is sometimes hiding my phones, and I'm putting quotation marks around that. I don't literally hide my phone from myself, but I might put it in a drawer, in my desk drawer so that I just don't see it. And so I'm I'm I'm, more likely to forget about it for periods of time, which is helpful because, again, keeps you off of social media, keeps me off of checking my phone, looking for contact from someone, or choosing to make contact myself. So the do not disturb function as much as possible. Obviously, everyone's circumstances are different, so you might have reasons why you need to keep your phone, you know, you need to know, you know, hear your phone or things like that, whether it's being on call for work or, you know, as a parent.
But, when my kids are with me, which is most of the time, then I have it on do not disturb. And, yeah. So that is another part of this process for me. And, again, putting your phone somewhere where you where you can't easily see it is very helpful as well. And another part of this, you know, cleansing and distancing is for you to limit communication with the person. And being deliberate about not engaging so much or maybe not engaging at all. I'm currently in a process where I am not initiate. I am not initiating contact with the person. I'm not ghosting them. If they reach out to me, I respond, but I am no longer initiating the contact myself.
This just helps to work on getting out of the habit of hearing from them as much and of me myself, kind of being used to reaching out to them. What also comes up with this is reducing the sharing of my life. So there would have been times in the past where I see something funny or I, you know, take some picture or record something and I'm or even see something online where I might share share it with the person. And I'm not doing that now because those sort of things only build intimacy with the person. They only build connection. And if I'm trying to disconnect a bit and distance and not put my emotional energy in that direction, then these are things that I would want to to avoid doing.
Obviously, what comes with this as well is reducing physical contact, so not seeing the person so much or at all. So, if you were seeing them with a certain frequency, choosing to deliberately decrease that frequency of hanging out, going on dates, things like that. Another thing that can be helpful is holding yourself accountable by telling other people. Like, hey. Letting a couple friends know. I'm I'm, you know, phasing this person out of my life or I'm distancing or I'm done with this. Because then you have, you know, eyes and ears on the situation to be like, mhmm. To side eye you if you start, back backpedaling.
So telling others, you know, certain trusted others can also be a helpful part of this process. And then the other part is finding distractions, like, whether it's things you need to do, like cleaning, schoolwork, your job, parenting, as well as things that you choose to do because they're enjoyable and distracting, watching shows or TV, exercising, going for a walk. You know, it could be anything. Listening to music, dancing, playing board games, video games, whatever your things are. Alright. That's all I have for this episode. These are some things that I am doing to help sage my soul to cleanse, to distance, to set boundaries, to phase out, to take back my energy and redirect it in the places that I want to direct it.
And stay tuned, for updates as I will continue to share about this experience as the weeks go on. And thank you for tuning in.
[00:19:08] Unknown:
Hey. By the way, I can be found in other places besides this podcast. Just search my name on YouTube, and you'll find my channel. Subscribe for periodic how to videos for dealing with breakups and mastering dating. That's right. I said mastering dating. It's a skill, ladies. I can also be found on Instagram at tracy panach. And lastly, I most encourage you to join my email list where you get breakup and dating support delivered to your inbox in addition to getting the most exclusive access to my programs and coaching services. My email list subscribers are the first to know when my coaching programs launch and the only people to get discounts when they're offered. As always, I'm glad we got into it and looking forward to next time.