Sojourner,

I agree with Big Blue, though I’d put the last first. That ache in your tummy is perhaps missing the tenderness. You don’t need him for that, though, you just got used to him giving that to you. Perhaps if you were to spend time being kind and gentle with yourself, being tender, self nurturing, then your body would more easily remember “oh, right, I don’t neeeed him to be happy, warmed”.

Sometimes when we’ve just broken up with a partner, we have all sorts of thoughts like “I miss him, I miss our connection, I miss what he did for me”, which are fueled by our body’s desire for kindness, warmth, companionship. As we self nurture, that need in us is fed, and the thoughts naturally fade away, become less demanding of us. The thirst is met, fades.

With warmth,
Matt