❤️🔥 In Relationship With x 💙 Asian Mental Health Project | Grieving an Ex while in a New Relationship
Note on the session: This live session will be recorded and accessible to the facilitators, Kevin and Stephanie. They will use it to write a follow-up summary and post the recorded part of only their story on YouTube. Due to the privacy and protection of folks who attend the session, the rest of the recording will not be published or accessible at all.
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Sometimes we can’t shake off a breakup… even if we’re in a new relationship.
Despite breaking up, we sometimes still play back memories of them. Despite knowing that we’ve moved on, grieving takes months, maybe even years.
It’s as if we can’t escape—the more we try to create new memories, the more our ex pops back up in our mind. Grieving people who are still alive on this earth is a complex process. It might stir up thoughts like:
😖 I’m in a new relationship. Why do I still think of my ex? I feel guilty.
😖 Didn’t I do my best back then? And if I did, why am I still ruminating over them?
😖 I still laugh at things from when I was with them. What does that mean about me?
Grief is love unexpressed and is a hard emotion seldom displayed in Asian culture. Using the most extreme example - families might say, “Save the tears for the day I pass.”
When we grow up in an environment that doesn’t know how to express and process grief, we lack the ability to discover its wisdom, our ability to express love can be stunted, and we miss chances to receive care from others.
It’s no wonder that when we move into adulthood, we might feel like we’re not allowed to have certain thoughts, when it’s natural to feel these emotions.
Relational dynamics facilitators, Kevin and Stephanie, will unpack some of these themes in this Brave Conversations session. We’ll explore:
❤️🔥 Building Capacity: Decrease judgement and increase capacity to love your partner for both their past AND present self
❤️🔥 Discernment: How to honor your partner’s past relationship AND discern what isn’t yours to hold
❤️🔥 Tools for relating: Disclosure
It’s safe to say that Kevin and Stephanie’s Asian experience has lots of complexity, and while their experience isn’t representative of all Asian cultures, their intention is to create a space to normalize these nuanced experiences.
Join us as we unpack what grieving an ex while in a new relationship can look like.