Being in the broom closet is not a comfortable place to be.\u00a0 There\u2019s too much old stuff hanging around, it\u2019s far too small and it smells a little like mothballs.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not in the closet but there was a time when I couldn\u2019t be my authentic self.\u00a0 I was far too worried that my friends wouldn\u2019t be my friends anymore, my family would consider me weird and my then husband would ridicule me.\u00a0 It turned out I was right on all accounts.<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re not living life how you feel you should be, you\u2019re not being your authentic self.\u00a0 It crushes your spirit and often depression isn\u2019t very far behind.\u00a0 Living in the fear of what other people think, especially those closest to you, because you\u2019re not a mainstream, cookie cutter clone is an invite to major stress.\u00a0 Often the fears are unfounded and loved ones love us unconditionally.<\/p>\n
I went through a divorce which altered my life completely. I realised I had to be me, take back control of situations that I\u2019d allowed to get horrendously out of control and pursue life on my terms.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t easy and at times it was excruciating painful.\u00a0 I lost everything I knew including my parents and brother. Cut off, gone from their lives as if I never existed.<\/p>\n
And yet there is a quietness and a peace to be found when old relationships, however permanent they\u2019d been in your life, dissolve and you\u2019re free to find new ones that suit you.\u00a0 You learn about yourself because you\u2019re forced to grow and develop.\u00a0 It\u2019s true what they say about the Universe detesting voids – sooner of later you fill the gaps that were left behind with new and wondrous things.\u00a0 And most importantly you know you will never, ever fit in a broom closet again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Being in the broom closet is not a comfortable place to be.\u00a0 There\u2019s too much old stuff hanging around, it\u2019s far too small and it smells a little like mothballs. I\u2019m not in the closet but there was a time when I couldn\u2019t be my authentic self.\u00a0 I was far too worried that my friends wouldn\u2019t be my friends anymore, my family would consider me weird and my then husband would ridicule me.\u00a0 It turned out I was right on all accounts. When you\u2019re not living life how you feel you should be, you\u2019re not being your authentic self.\u00a0 It crushes your spirit and often depression isn\u2019t very far behind.\u00a0 Living in the fear of what other people think, especially those closest to you, because you\u2019re not a mainstream, cookie cutter clone is an invite to major stress.\u00a0 Often the fears are unfounded and loved ones love us unconditionally. I went through a divorce which altered my life completely. I realised I had to be me, take back control of situations that I\u2019d allowed to get horrendously out of control and pursue life on my terms.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t easy and at times it was excruciating painful.\u00a0 I lost everything I knew including my parents and brother. Cut off, gone from their lives as if I never existed. And yet there is a quietness and a peace to be found when old relationships, however permanent they\u2019d been in your life, dissolve and you\u2019re free to find new ones that suit you.\u00a0 You learn about yourself because you\u2019re forced to grow and develop.\u00a0 It\u2019s true what they say about the Universe detesting voids – sooner of later you fill the gaps that were left behind with new and wondrous things.\u00a0 And most importantly you know you will never, ever fit in a broom closet again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3948,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions\/3948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}