How to "let go" of the life/relationship/family that you thought you'd have?

[treasure47]

Has anyone had to do this? How, and what helped?

I feel like I've had this idea in my head for so long of how my life/family would look and now I'm not sure if it will happen and I'm struggling to let go of that.

I saw a quote recently that said "you should make choices based off of how your life FEELS rather than how it looks. You might be surprised to find that your perfect life looks nothing like you imagined".

Has anyone found this to be true?

I realised that how I see myself is the thing that dictates how I see my life.

What do you do on the regular to keep your self esteem buoyant?

I suggest therapy, if you can afford it. Through the therapy I basically gave myself time and space to really think about what I wanted, not what I thought my life would be, or what society tells us we should have, but what I actually want. And one day it sort of just came together. I wanted to be single, childless, living in a different area, prioritising the things I enjoy and my career. I still get a lot of pressure from friends and family to find a new partner and have kids but I know now that I just don't want those things.