I’ve been a bit sad but that’s OK. Perhaps what I learnt about sadness will help you too?

A couple of weeks ago, we finally said goodbye to our Shogun. 198,000 miles on the clock and 186,000 of them with me or my husband in the driving seat. We've been through a lot together, me and that car.

The planet will undoubtedly breathe a sigh of relief, as will my bank balance, but I loved that car…and I’m not even a ‘car’ sort of person. So I’ve been a bit sad…but that’s ok.

“It’s OK to be sad for a while...

and then it's time to let it go”

This is the strategy I learnt for dealing with sadness about 23 years ago and unfortunately, with what feels like more than a normal share of death amongst family and friends for someone of my age, it’s helped me ride the emotional wave of grief quite a few times.

I learnt this when I had my first experience of Time Line Therapy, in what I now call an ‘Emotional Spring-Clean’. A session that focuses on releasing all the anger, sadness, fear and guilt stuck in the past.

And as I mentioned in a blog about my story, it was a life-changing experience for me.

Not only did it clear up the past, but I also came away with new ways to handle each of these major emotions.

Now when I think of things that happened in my past, I don’t fall back into the emotion any more. I can recognise I felt that way at the time, but I don’t feel it again now.

It was and still is, an enormous relief. I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders that day.