Therapy hiatus

I graduated from therapy! For now, at least. I may go back at some point, possibly to someone with a different approach.

After a few months, I felt like the therapist was telling me the same things over and over again, and it was time to act on them. We talked about self-compassion, mindfulness of emotion, and in general keeping in mind what's really important to me (and what should be important to me, like taking care of myself) and living accordingly. 

One image that helped me was riding a wave -- knowing that if things are overwhelming (or if things are perfect), it will pass, and trying to go with it instead of struggling against it. I've been reading a book about mindfulness meditation, and it also talks about how we have a tendency to grasp on to happy moments and try to push away bad ones, and how instead we need to take things as they come and accept both the good and the bad as essential parts of life.

We also spent a few sessions talking about my childhood, and I left those feeling much lighter. I learned that my unhappy childhood had something in common with the unhappy parts of my Biglaw experience -- it's the mindfuck that's harder to deal with than what actually happened.

So, overall: big thumbs up for therapy. I will keep practicing all of the things I learned. And maybe I'll use the extra hour in my week to finally start piano lessons.