A Year's Worth of New Things
One thing that worked for me was to keep a list of all the new things I did in that first year. I'd never run a household completely on my own, or cared for the kids alone, or made huge life decisions without a partner. (of course, now I'd argue that I actually did all those things on my own before, but I had another person in my orbit who seemed to be there with me.) I decided to keep a list on my phone of everything I did that I hadn't done before. I added new things to the list for the full 12 months after he left. Here's what it looked like: -got oil changed--on my mom's car as I didn't have a vehicle after he left and she lent me hers. -got my own car--I've never had a car where I was the sole driver -took car to mechanic--also got my own mechanic -jump started a car--with the help of the lovely lady across the street -turned off the furnace -turned on the air conditioner -called a repair person for the air conditioner -learned how to clea...