Life involves loss and disappointment, and those events can leave a lasting effect on you. Sometimes you don’t even realize how much something hurt until later when you get triggered and have an emotional reaction out of proportion to what just happened.

When you go through a breakup, or a job loss, or some other sad event, give yourself permission to mourn the loss. I’m afraid we only associate mourning with the death of a loved one, but it applies to so much more than that. Giving yourself the mental space to mourn a loss lets you process it, and work through your emotions about it. And that allows you to move on from it.

You aren’t going to forget that it happened, but you can move past the strong emotions about it so it won’t interfere with you later in life. We carry all the scars of everything that happens to us, but carrying the scars doesn’t mean we need to allow them to dictate how we live now.

Take the time to mourn your losses, then when you’re ready, move on with that chapter in your life closed behind you.