Living Apart Together Omg I forgot that I was doing 5 things

Since my living apart together relationship videos are popping off on TikTok right now, I wanted to tell you the five things I've learned in doing living apart together ever since I got divorced. I was divorced over 10 years ago. So I've never cohabitated with a man ever since. And I can tell you, my favorite part about living apart together was that I learned how to be in relationship without losing myself. That is such a hard thing. Like we talk about de-centering men, yes, because as women, you want to be able to build yourself. I lived by the mantra, money before men, for literally the last decade of my life. But it didn't mean that I didn't have men in my life. And it was because of living apart together that gave me the chance to be like, okay, I'm going to be the best single mom that I can be on my parenting time. And then on my non-parenting time, it was, okay, I love being alone. So I'm going to fill up my own cup. But I also love my girlfriends. And then there was this other part of me that was like, but I also love building businesses. And I also love being in relationship. And so do you know what living apart together relationships helped me do? It helped me learn how to be in relationship with someone, maintain my autonomy and see the best parts of myself thrive. I was talking the other day about how I want to be a writer and I'm building Substack and I'm starting to move in a different way in my business. And my partner said to me, I said, well, why wouldn't you do that? He goes, you doing exactly what you want to do makes you a better partner for me. And it's just, me not living with someone and me sleeping in my own bed every night if we have time together, because I'm taking care of myself, because I'm building myself, because I'm resting and recovering and going through life and I have someone who's in my corner and in my back pocket and I can pull up my phone and call anytime I need this person. But I also know how to maintain my whole self and my well-being. So if you feel like you struggle with not losing yourself, give living apart together an honest try. Because it challenges you to learn how to do that for yourself.