Conscious Uncoupling: 5 Steps to Living Happily Even After

by Katherine Woodward Thomas

It’s important we learn to look at our mistakes straight on, and let the consequences of those mistakes touch our hearts. It’s called an awakening of conscience, and it’s a good thing because it means that you’re becoming a more wholehearted and mature human being. By looking to discover yourself as the source of your experience, you’re essentially becoming a seeker of truth. Not just your own personal truth, which is important, of course, but also truth from an objective, rather than a subjective, perspective even if that means seeing things about yourself that are less than flattering. The rule of thumb: you want to be more interested in developing yourself than you are in defending yourself, more interested in being rigorously honest than being right. Seeing ourselves clearly can be a humbling experience, for sure. Yet, as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, “You can’t save your face and your ass at the same time.” ASK YOURSELF: “When I stop pointing the finger and look below the surface to examine the actions I took and the choices I made, what can I see about how I am responsible for this situation?”