We usually learn everything we need to know about relationships from the ones we experience around us—mostly our parents, friends, neighbors, etc. For better or worse, those experiences prepare us, usually toughening up our armor to take our own battles for love and happiness in the outside world.
But for those individuals who are ill-prepared for the fight, what happens when they get their first wounds in the field? How do you move on, react? Do you even dare to try again? Writer Jazz Keyes shares her journey through hurt and the steps she took to fight for trust and love again…
I never really knew cheating was a thing until it happened to me. Rooted deeply in old traditions, I grew up in a two-parent home with parents who were born in the 40s. This left me naive and unprepared for relationships in the new era. I was raised to believe that in marriages, you yell a little, then have coffee together the next morning.
So, the first time I was cheated on my mind couldn’t process it.
Infidelity alters your identity in the worst way. Consumed with the infractions of your spouse, you instantaneously get amnesia and forget who you were before the relationship commenced. I have been self-diagnosed with temporary dementia too many times. I have allowed my relationships to make me forget my passions, purpose, and love for self.
Infidelity conditions you to apply distrust to everything. I remained in a relationship where nothing was honored and nothing was sacred and it taught me to enter into every relationship after that with apprehension and an exit plan.
Read the rest at JetMag.com