In my experience, many newlyweds feel conflicted about coming home from their honeymoons. 
On one hand, they’re eager and excited to get home and settle into married life. 

On the other, after being the bride and groom, up on a pedestal and at the center of attention for so many months, it can feel anticlimactic to unpack your bags, watch your tans fade, and get back to humdrum everyday life. 

Some newlyweds even go through wedding withdrawal; post-wedding life can seem flat, dull, and empty. 

After months of filling every spare second stressing about the wedding, checking off the to-do-list, or going to parties thrown in your honor, many newlyweds find themselves staring at each other, thinking, “Okay, what do we do now?” 

Please share your thoughts in the comments below, and stay tuned for next week’s installment of ‘Book to Blog’ – Chapter 10!

"My question to you, however, is this: How do you know – today, two weeks before your wedding – that you’ll be a nervous wreck walking down the aisle fourteen days from now?”

“I don’t,” she relied. “But I’m pretty sure I’m going to be anxious.”

“Okay, but you can’t be certain,” I told her. “What if, instead of convincing yourself that you’ll be nervous just before your ceremony, you tell yourself that you will simply be curious about what you’re feeling? 

What if you make a conscious effort to let in whatever feelings arise, let them course through your body and your mind? What if you treat the feelings you have when you walk down the aisle the same way you did when you were stuffing the envelopes? 

That day, you let yourself feel the pang of sadness about leaving your family, but then a feeling of happiness about marrying Jake quickly followed. Remember that? What if you let one feeling flow through to the next, and let yourself be where you are?”

Please share your thoughts in the comments below, and stay tuned for next week’s installment of ‘Book to Blog’ – Chapter 9!

Many brides-to-be describe their transitions out of the Ending stage and into the Bridging stage of their engagements like a fog finally lifting. 
For the early months of their engagement, they walked around consumed by feelings of loss and disorientation as they let go of old ways of being. 

They felt that the confusion would never end. They’ve been afraid that they’d be in a down, depressed funk on their wedding day, and that they’d never feel happy or excited about getting married, even though, deep down, they trusted that that was what they wanted to do.

Once you enter the Bridging stage, you will have made the internal psychological adjustments necessary to begin you new life as a married woman... 

Please share your thoughts in the comments below, and stay tuned for next week’s installment of ‘Book to Blog’ – Chapter 8!

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Lucky for Pauline, Gina was the type of person who put her feelings on the table.

“I’m so happy for you, Pauline,” Gina volunteered just fays after Pauline got engaged.  "And I hope it’s okay to tell you this, but watching you find Mr. Right just makes me worry about myself, you know?”

With Gina, Pauline had it easy, because Gina was able to separate her own feelings into two categories: sad for herself, and happy for Pauline. 

Gina didn’t shy away from her feelings of sadness; she didn’t push the sadness away because it was real for her. 

And voicing her sadness – expressing and sharing it with Pauline—was essential because it made their interactions real and honest. 

Both Gina, and Pauline knew where the other stood, how the other felt, and how the other valued the friendship.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below, and stay tuned for next week’s installment of ‘Book to Blog’ – Chapter 7!