Breaking Free: Moving Forward After Heartbreak

24/07/2025

It’s been a while since posted here.

This past year has been… life-changing.
I went through a divorce.
Found myself a single mom, living in a foreign country, just me and my teenage daughter.
And my heart? It had to rebuild itself, through sadness, through fear, through strength.

Somewhere along the way, I felt the urge to create something for myself, and for other women.

So I opened a little Etsy shop.
Simple. Honest. Real.

It’s filled with short downloadable guides (in English)
tools for women who carry a lot: at work, at home, and in their hearts.
Guides to help you breathe, to say no without guilt, to recover after a rough meeting, to reconnect with your own power.

And now I’m asking for your help, woman to woman, heart to heart.

If you feel a connection to what I’m doing:
👛 Buy a guide (they’re only $1.50)
📝 Leave a review
📤 Share with someone who needs this right now
💗 Like, comment, or help me spread the word

This isn’t just a business. It’s a piece of my healing.
And maybe… a tool for someone else’s.

Thank you for being here. It truly means the world.

Link to my shop in the first comment

Inbal

Shop items by Busywomanguides.

31/08/2023

Sharon's Story
-------------------------------
Sharon has been married to Ross for 13 years. They have two children.
In the last two years, Sharon engaged in a tumultuous affair with a man she met at work. What started as a fling for sexual needs lasted longer than anticipated and evolved into a stormy relationship.
Sharon never expected to fall in love so deeply with him. At first, she wasn't even sure if she likes him. But as their relationship continued, Sharon's feelings for him grew stronger and stronger, leading her to disappointment and heartbreak time and time again.
Ross and she were simply not on the same page. While Ross aimed to maintain a detached, emotionless relationship and even expressed it openly, Sharon loved him with all her heart and desired more.
How much more? She couldn't quite put it into words. She didn't want to leave her husband, nor did she want to break her family apart for her children's sake. But she did want Ross to love her back. She wanted him to love her as deeply as she loved him. She wanted him to think of her constantly, to show small gestures of affection that would bring her joy, to be as committed to their bond as she was.
However, Ross guarded his emotions deeply within and openly declared that he didn't want nor could he handle such a relationship. The moments of separation from him, after each hurried half-hour meeting, tore Sharon's soul apart. She awaited their weekly encounters with such intensity that when they ended and she had to say goodbye, she shattered over and over again.
In the end, she decided to put an end to it.
Her attempts to end it happened numerous times over an extended period, and eventually, she succeeded. It was tough, painful, and agonizing. What made it even harder was that she couldn't share her pain with anyone except for one close friend who knew the story. But she had to conceal her emotional breakdown at home and continue functioning as usual.
Today, 9 months after the breakup, she reached out to me and said:
"It's not over, I feel insane, I don't know what to do with myself anymore. Nine months and it's not over."
What would you say to her?

21/08/2023

One of the painful things is
to see your Ex moving on.
In other words, finding a new partner,
creating a new connection,
continuing in their life, enjoying, being in love.

Because a broken heart is similar to addiction
(you are welcome to search my previous post on the subject),
we spy on them, searching on social networks,
what did he do, with whom did he do,
where was he, with whom is he socializing.

And then we discover that he is with someone else,
and it's a strong blow to our heart,
which is already shattered into fragments.

It's like taking something broken, letting it cling a bit,
and then breaking it again.
It shatters into even smaller pieces.

The best way to say goodbye,
and to prevent adding further heartache
on top of what you're already experiencing,
is to disconnect all at once, to cut completely,
and to disconnect everything.

No friendships on Facebook,
no tracking on Instagram, no TikTok, no YouTube.
Cut, cut, cut.

Cut it completely,
the most painful in the short run,
the least painful in the long run.

20/08/2023

Lynn's story
-------------------
"I'm ready for marriage, I want children,
I want to start my life already."
Lynn, 29 years old, said to me the first time we met.
Lynn and Greg have been together for about a year.
Greg is two years older than her.
A relationship that began as a one-night stand
turned into an official partnership
where Lynn always wants more,
while Greg constantly hesitates, unsure, not ready to commit fully.

The "hard to get"
------------------------
Greg says he "didn't have a crush on me" at the beginning,
that it started as a one-night stand,
and there wasn't a "spark".
He says he loves me, but he doesn't know if he loves me enough.
He doesn't know if he wants to live with me forever,
marry me, and have children with me.
A few months ago, he asked not to meet for a few days
because he "wants to think."
I felt like I was going crazy during those days.
I couldn't handle it.
I paced around the house like a caged animal,
waiting for him to come back to me.
After what felt like an eternity,
he came to me and said he wants us to continue the relationship.
Even though we basically live together in my apartment,
he's not giving up his place and continues to hold onto it.
Like a safety net, somewhere to go in any given moment,
in case he decides to part with me.

The price
---------------------------
I can live like this, she tells me,
I feel like a sword is hanging over my neck at any given moment,
and my heart, which is already soaking from his wounds,
is about to break.
I will die if he leaves me,
I can't continue to live without him, Lynn says.

Love hurts
-----------------------------
Love hurts, I told her.
Sometimes love hurts,
especially when we're not in the right place for us.
When we want more, commit more,
and don't receive the same feelings and commitment from our partner,
which we rightfully deserve.

The breakup
-----------------------
After about two months, Greg broke up with her.
Lynn crashed and sunk into the endless pain of her shattered heart.
It hurts, even very much so, I told her.
And you won't die from it. You can live without him.
You lived without him until the age of 28,
and you had good years before him.
I know that right now you can't see the future without him,
and the thought of it is burning within you.

One step at a time
----------------------------------
Then I asked her to focus on one small step at a time.
Don't think about the future.
Think about getting through the day.
Think about how you can get through
the upcoming hours in a good way.
What can you do right now to ease the moment for yourself?
The thing is, along with the separation from Greg,
Lynn let go of all the dreams and hopes she developed
while she was with him.
She gave up on the house she wanted with him,
the family she imagined they would have,
and the life with him as she envisioned it for months.
You can't overcome such a loss in one day.
It takes time. Sometimes a lot of time.
And the best way to start is with one small step,
and each time, just one small step.

18/08/2023

Emily sent me a brief message, saying that her heart is shattered into a million pieces. We scheduled a meeting where she told me her story. (Names and details have been changed, of course, to prevent identification).

Emily's relationship with her boyfriend, Ron, was a symphony of unbalanced emotions.

Her heart overflowed with a love that consumed her, while his affection appeared lukewarm in comparison.

She reveled in their shared moments, cherishing every word and gesture, while he seemed distant and preoccupied.

As time passed, Emily's love deepened, and she yearned for a commitment that he didn't share.

Conversations about their future were met with avoidance, leaving her feeling adrift in a sea of unmet expectations.

The unspoken truth hung in the air, and Emily's heartbreak became a silent companion, a constant reminder that her love had outgrown his.

In the midst of her emotional turmoil, Emily discovered thaylt Ron's feelings were not aligned with her own.

He enjoyed the companionship without the same level of investment, leaving Emily's heart vulnerable to the painful realization that she was more invested than he was.

His reluctance to commit shattered her dreams of a shared future, and the weight of unreciprocated love bore down on her.

And then she texted me.
Emily's journey towards healing and finding the right love for her begins.

17/08/2023

I'm sharing something very personal here.
This is a text I wrote when my heart
was shattered into tiny pieces.
I wrote it during one of my lowest moments,
a long time after we parted ways.
*************************
Last night, I dreamt of you again,
after not dreaming of you for a while.
It's been 8 months since the last time we were together,
and it doesn't fade.

There isn't a day I don't think of you.
There isn't a day I don't see you in my imagination.
There isn't a day I don't reminisce about our moments together.

Eight months have passed,
and you're still in my thoughts.
Sometimes I feel it will never pass.
I'm sure you're in a completely different place by now.
That you haven't thought about me in a long time,
and it's just me stuck in the same place.

8months have passed.
There are days when it feels like
it happened just a second ago.
There are days when I manage
to breathe a little easier.

8 months.
And every day, I just want to stop feeling this pain.
The unbearable,
The silencing,
The scorching in my body and soul.

16/08/2023

Let's chat about this thing called "Overgeneralization."
It's like when our brains jump to big conclusions
based on little info or one not-so-great thing that happened. 🤔

Imagine this: You've had a rough breakup,
and suddenly you're like, "I'll never find love again!"
That's Overgeneralization in action.
It's like predicting the whole movie from just one scene. 🎬

Dealing with heartbreak?
Oh boy, Overgeneralization can really mess with your feelings
and make healing seem like a maze.
Been there, done that. 🙄

I remember when I had my heart shattered into pieces.
I felt like I was destined to be a solo adventurer forever,
wandering the land of loneliness.

The thought of finding love again seemed
as far-fetched as finding a unicorn in my backyard. 🦄

But guess what? That's just a trick our minds play on us.
It's like telling yourself that you can't dance
just because you tripped once. Silly, right? 💃

One day, I realized I was falling for this Overgeneralization trap.
So, I decided to kick it in the butt.
I asked myself some tough questions, like:

"Is this gloomy thought actually true, or just my mind exaggerating?"
"Have all my past relationships ended in disaster?
Nah, there were some sunny moments."
"Is it fair to judge all future relationships based on one bad experience?"
"Have others found love after heartbreak?
Heck yeah, they have!"

And you know what? It worked!
Challenging those negative thoughts helped me see that heartbreak isn't a crystal ball predicting my love life's future. 🌟

So, here's the deal:
Share your Overgeneralization thoughts with us.
We're all ears and ready to help you
kick those misconceptions to the curb.
Let's challenge them together!

15/08/2023

Many years ago,
a wise rabbi said that
"a broken heart is a whole heart".
This aligns with the Japanese philosophy of Kintsukuroi,
which suggests that fractures and imperfections
actually add value and beauty to us.

I'm here to remind you that
your heart is complete even when it's broken,
and that all the fragments life leaves within you
only make you more whole.

Being broken sometimes is a part of being human,
and the ability to feel is a wonderful gift
even when emotions are tough and unbearable.

One day, you will wake up in the morning
and discover that the fractures are beginning to unite.
You will find yourself stronger,
and armed with resilience.

You will have learned an important lesson in life,
and then you will be able to embark on a new journey.

14/08/2023

One of the things that helped me overcome
one of the painful separations I experienced in my life
was realizing that I needed to love myself
just as I wanted him to love me.

It's something that's easy to say,
but not always easy to do.
In this case, I decided to follow my favorite method:
"fake it till you become it" 😊.

That meant I added things to my schedule
that brought me comfort,
like a massage or a nice dinner with friends.

It meant being forgiving towards myself,
and above all, giving myself a break.
It meant demanding less from myself,
that it was okay to ease up at work
and not do things that were on my to-do list.

It meant doing things alone or with friends
that I wanted to do with him.

Or, as John Lennon said,
"love is the answer, and you know that for sure",
Just this time, towards myself.

12/08/2023

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Link in the first comment.