02/11/2025
💔 When You’re the One Who Left
People often assume that the person who ends a relationship has it easier.
But the truth? It’s rarely easy - and it’s never simple.
Even when you know it was the right thing to do, it still hurts.
You might feel relief and heartbreak in the same breath.
You might lie awake wondering:
“Did I try hard enough?”
“Was I selfish?”
“What if I’ve made a mistake?”
Leaving doesn’t protect you from grief.
It just gives you a different version of it.
When you’re the one who walks away, it can feel like you’ve lost the right to be sad.
You tell yourself you should be fine - because you made the choice.
But that doesn’t silence the pain.
You’re still saying goodbye to the future you imagined,
to the version of yourself you were in that relationship,
and to the comfort of what was familiar.
You might feel:
❤️ Guilt for hurting someone you still care about
đź’ Shame for wanting more or needing to go
đź’” Anger that it had to be you who made the hard call
🌙 Loneliness, even though you were the one who left
It’s confusing - guilt, relief, sadness, and freedom, all at once.
Here’s what I want you to know:
Feeling guilty doesn’t mean you made a mistake.
It means you care.
You can still love parts of someone and know you can’t stay.
You can miss them and still be right to leave.
Both can be true.
You don’t owe anyone endless guilt to prove your love was real.
You’re allowed to heal too.
You can take responsibility for your part in what happened
- without carrying all the blame.
You can grieve what was lost
- without regretting the choice that set you free.
Sometimes courage looks like walking away with love still in your heart.
If you’ve left a relationship and can’t seem to shake the guilt or the “what ifs,” you don’t have to go through it alone.
At Sea Change Therapy & Coaching, I help people navigate the emotional side of separation - whether they were left or they left - with honesty, compassion, and clarity.
📩 Book a free, confidential Breakthrough Session if you’re ready to talk about what’s next.
👉 www.seachangetherapyandcoaching.com
You can care deeply and still walk away.
You can grieve and still grow.
And you can heal - even when you were the one who said goodbye. đź’«
