Last week, we began a discussion about coping with divorce, child custody proceedings or any other family law dispute. Although these matters are stressful and will impact other parts of your life, the fact that they often take between a year and 18 months to finalize means that you must treat your family law dispute as a marathon and not a sprint.

Coping with stress, anxiety and distracting thoughts is crucial to maintaining your health and continuing to function in regular life (especially at work). Our previous post discussed setting limits with yourself about when/how often you focus on the divorce and with whom you allow yourself to discuss it.

In today’s post, we’ll discuss the importance of self-care, positive distractions and creating a wider lens through which to view your current situation.

If you have set time limits for how often you’ll think about and work on your family law issue, that alone may not be enough to “shut off” your brain, so to speak. Stressful thoughts can and will creep back in. Therefore, you should come up with fun and healthy distractions to look forward to and to get your mind on other things. You should also practice self care. Examples of both include:

• Picking up a new hobby or reviving an old one
• Exercising regularly to combat stress and promote good sleep
• Beginning to associate certain spaces and activities as “just for me,” meaning that you never think about or work on your family law dispute in those places and at those times
• Reconnect with a faith community and/or focus on your spiritual growth
• Make or foster friendships with people that you admire and from whom you can draw inspiration
• Reward yourself in small ways for being disciplined and healthy about managing your family law dispute

What you are currently going through or are about to go through is almost never easy. It can make you feel like your whole life has been turned upside down. But like countless individuals who have gone before you, you will soon realize that your family law dispute is survivable and that your life will go on. In the meantime, try to take care of yourself as best you can.

Source: First Wives World, “Don’t Let Divorce Consume Your Life,” Cathy Meyer, Feb. 22, 2013