The very word “divorce” carries with it a stigma, in the eyes of many at least. To many people it suggests failure, the inability to keep a marriage together, or some other fault. Hollywood marriages seem to be based less on love and permanence and more on how quickly the marriage will end and who will end up the richer because of it. Divorce lawyers in novels are portrayed as greedy, unethical monsters whose only thought is to how much they can help their client – and thus themselves – rip off the “enemy” – an enemy who was once supposed to be with until death parted us. All in all, divorce has a bad PR agent, to say the least.

But does this have to be the case? With divorce rates soaring worldwide, it might be better to try and look at it in a different light than to resign oneself to being a “failure”. If everyone thought this way, there would be a lot of self-styled “failures” in the world. Instead, one could think of it as a change, an opportunity to start again. It could even be seen as an act of kindness, an opportunity to free both parties from something that one or both of them is unhappy with. With enough ingenuity, the pain of even the most difficult divorces could be softened, if only a little. And the ability to look a few years into the future – and to try and be positive about what you will see there – can give you an alternative to only seeing the short term misery.

This is considerably oversimplified of course, but if one can make even the slightest change in one’s attitude towards what is often a difficult period, it could make enough of a difference to change one’s whole experience.