How To Learn To Close Stages In Life In A Healthy Way
Throughout our lives, people go through a series of cycles that mark us to a greater or lesser extent and that establish the challenges and needs on which we focus. But sometimes, it is difficult for us to recognize that we cannot fully control these rhythms through which we move through life.
We understand a life cycle or stage as those processes that have a differentiated beginning, development and end, and that move us from one life situation to another that may be unexpected or novel for us.
Since no one is born learning, people develop mechanisms throughout our lives to overcome in the best possible way the transitions between said cycles or life stages However, for some it can be difficult to learn to conclude them and leave them behind.
Being able to successfully go through each of these stages of life, without being excessively affected and always learning new useful lessons for the future, is vital to not suffer in life and to keep our emotional and psychological integrity intact.
Luckily, this knowledge can be trained and learned from the field of psychology and mental health, and currently we can find a wide variety of professionals who can help us learn to overcome vital stages that we have left behind.
Below you will find a list of tricks, tips and strategies that we can put into practice to close stages of life in a healthy and adaptive way
The concept of loss is often associated with closing cycles, since they are similar, although these two phenomena do not always happen instantly and can occur one without the other.
With the closure of a stage or life cycle, feelings of pain, anguish or suffering may emerge but these types of emotional states are not as sudden or unexpected as losses are.
On the other hand, a loss happens when the person does not expect it and is almost always associated with the beginning of a grieving process that must be successfully navigated by the person in question to overcome it.
So, we can say that Losses may occur when a stage is closed, but many losses can occur without closure of cycle or stage.
7 ways to learn to close stages of life healthily
The life events that can lead to the closure of a stage can be very diverse and of a different nature, among the most common we can find: a divorce, the death of a loved one, a traffic accident, reaching a certain age or graduating from college. university, etc.
In this list you will be able to learn which are the most useful strategies to learn to close each of these stages of life in a healthy and positive way.
1. Learn to let go of what belongs to the past
Most human beings have difficulty concluding cycles that should already be closed, since the fear of the unknown, novelty or uncertainty is anchored in our nature. It is a challenge to accept that there are things linked to our identity and our life journey that we can no longer reproduce in the present.
Although it may be difficult, we must be able to gather enough strength to, at the given moment, know when a period is over and we must say goodbye to it, with all that that entails on an emotional level.
Psychology professionals agree that learning to let go is the first step to successfully closing vital stages, since in this way we will be able to leave behind the burdens of the past that can make us suffer, create anxiety or generate any psychological alteration.
Just as it happens with a faucet that does not turn off properly, when we do not definitively and consciously conclude a cycle and leave it behind, we can continue dragging things that affect us reaching a state of stagnation, which prevents us from moving forward in our lives.
2. Take stock
After the closing of a cycle, a period of mourning may arise that must be navigated, since we are leaving behind a reality that may have been important to us; that is why We must know how to say goodbye to it and take stock of the positive and negative things it has given us
Taking stock means analyzing the feelings and emotions that we experienced during that period of our life, from the beginning to its end, and also evaluating all the experiences that we had to live, both positive and negative.
This global balance will allow us to say goodbye to this stage and conclude the grieving process for a stage of our life that is leaving.
3. Remember the effort made
In addition to evaluating what we experienced, it is also important to remember the effort made during the last stage, with which we will feel proud of ourselves and We will be aware of both our value as human beings and our great ability to face adversity
In this way we will focus on the positive aspects of what we have done and not only on the bad moments, which will allow us to increase our self-esteem and improve the assessment we have of ourselves and our performance.
4. Learn from mistakes
Another benefit that the global balance gives us is learning from the mistakes we have made in the past, something that will benefit us greatly in the future.
It is known to all that very important knowledge is learned from mistakes to apply in the future and with which we can avoid making all kinds of errors again.
5. Set new goals to look toward the future
To move forward once a stage has closed, it is important to establish new goals in our lives, since we have left the previous stage behind and it is necessary to have new incentives and motivations that guide our gaze towards what is to come.
Having new horizons to pursue will help us leave the past stage behind and will give us the strength to have new projects as soon as possible.
6. Forgive us
To overcome successfully completed stages, we must forgive ourselves and avoid reproaching ourselves for things from the past. This It is achieved by accepting everything that happened and not blaming ourselves for those things that may have gone wrong
It is important to be clear that reality is what it is, you cannot go back to the past and it is useless to regret or think again about what could have happened if we had acted differently. You have to forgive yourself and move on.
7. Take action
In addition to all the mental, introspective and emotional process carried out on the previous stage We must begin to take concrete and practical actions to move forward with our lives and not get stuck in the previous stage.
Once we have taken action by carrying out new projects that open up a new time and a new life for us, it will be much easier for us to leave the past stage behind.
