Emotional Research
It had been 11 years since I had fallen in love. The last time, all those years ago, was with my husband, to whom I am still so happily married. He is my everything, my universe. He is patient and kind and supportive and loving. He is gentle and intelligent and affectionate. I tell him every day how lucky I am to have him in my life. I thank him every day for his unending patience with me, and I thank the universe for him as well. Every. single. day.
It had been 11 years since I had fallen in love. It had been about 15 since I had my heart broken and over 20 since it had been shattered. Then over this past year of utter hell, I have fallen in love twice and been shattered twice. It must be the last twelve years of being with such a great man, one who is honest and has a deep sense of integrity, that I have a tendency to just trust people. It must be living in an open and honest relationship that makes me believe other people’s words, for I do take people at their word. And I just keep getting burned.
As I recover from the latest slight, from a man I trusted implicitly–a man who betrayed that trust–the realization of what this past year of agony has been hit me last week.
Emotional research.
As a dark romance author, I must spin tales of desire and heartbreak, love and death. My personal experience of falling in love was based on a decade-old memory. My personal experience of heartbreak, extreme heartbreak, was over two decades old. Well, fate fixed that.
Likely the darkest time in my entire life, the past year has reminded me of what it feels like to fall in love, to be sick with love, to feel the agony of desire, to suffer the crippling pain of heartbreak. After losing nearly 25 lbs due to the anxiety over the losses, after being unable to focus enough to read or write anything longer than a short story or a blog post for months, I have finally found my silver lining, the only good thing to come out of this torment (besides being thinner than I have been in 20 yrs): Emotional Research.
Now I have fresh memories of the pangs of love. Now I have recent sensations of feeling so much desire for another, and feeling the same from them, that you fear it will consume you–and you just don’t care. Now I have the emptiness, that sinking, hollow feeling in your soul that only heartbreak can bring.
Now I remember it all.
With a little more time to heal–once I can focus again, once I can write again–I will be a better writer for it. My stories will be full of more emotion. They will contain richer characters, deeper pain. They will contain burning desire and crippling loss.
Because it all has to be for something. Right?
Right?!?!
Please tell me that there will be some benefit when I finally get over this.
Until then, I will continue trying to get through each day. Pushing memories out of my mind. Sleeping as much as humanly possible just to have a few hours of relief. Finding distractions when I can. Crying when I can’t. Looking ahead. Going through the motions of life until I can once again feel alive.
Caught in the Cogs 
Hi, Olivia (yes, I read the “About…” page)… sounds like a rough go of things. I expect that this -will- make you a better writer. It may even help to establish some emotional distance by asking, “If I were -this- kind of person, how would I have handled -that part- differently?”, or, “What would -that- kind of person do if s/he were in my shoes?”. Write it down. Dictate it. Or just tell your story to an audio recording device and listen to it later when you have enough emotional distance to be able to handle it without crying. That’s my advice… good luck getting through this.
Quite rough indeed. I love the idea on an audio recording, just getting it out. I’ve been doing more of that lately, and it seems to be working. And, yes, I sure do have a lot of fodder for antagonists, emotional predators, and womanizers now for my stories. No doubt. 😀 Thank you for your kind words and support. x
You will come through it and be stronger than you ever were. Stronger emotionally, and mentally. Your writing will continue to improve. And your writing is already incredible.
Thank you so much! What wonderful, kind words. They mean so much to me during this time. Thanks, too, for your support. x
You are always welcome. And you know they are true.
It will definitely make you a better writer. I believe that everything I go through will feed my writing and is therefore not a waste. On another note, I’m actually going to start experimenting with therapeutic free-writing in regards to some emotional hurts I’m going through. I can’t recommend its success yet, but it might be something you could try.
I do hope you’re right, Angela. I’m working hard on trying to regain my focus. Tell me more about therapeutic free-writing.
The idea is to sit down and write whatever comes to your mind without stopping to think about it. Just let it flow, wherever it takes you, even if it’s not logical or organized. I’ve been told 10-15 minutes is good, but I find that hard to maintain. I eventually start repeating myself. I think the goal is to work over the surface stuff until deeper issues or insights emerge. I’m hoping to be able to put my feelings into words; I think there’s power in being able to articulate exactly what you’re feeling so you can understand yourself better.
Sometimes there is relief in knowing that being engaged in life and all it brings means we are truly living, even when it hurts. Experiencing pain is hard but at least you dared to see what was possible. Wishing you swift relief and great writing from this.
Thank you, Carey. Your kind words of support brightened my day. xo
It does seem like, in normal discourse sometimes, the only lining that what does not kills us makes us stronger. And hopefully prepares us for the next time, but I almost want to say, since I myself don’t have an artistic outlet like yours, that there must be more than just the character building line we sometimes get.
I love your emotional research though. Maybe that’s it.
Thank you, Suzanne. xo