The announcement made by Gwyneth Paltrow and husband Chris Martin that they were divorcing was surprising to many folks who viewed their superstar marriage as pretty much “perfect”.  The fact that they called it a “Conscious Uncoupling” really had tongues wagging. So much so, that website GOOP crashed.

Here’s the announcement as it displayed on Goop:

Conscious Uncoupling

 

It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate. We have been working hard for well over a year, some of it together, some of it separated, to see what might have been possible between us, and we have come to the conclusion that while we love each other very much we will remain separate. We are, however, and always will be a family, and in many ways we are closer than we have ever been. We are parents first and foremost, to two incredibly wonderful children and we ask for their and our space and privacy to be respected at this difficult time. We have always conducted our relationship privately, and we hope that as we consciously uncouple and coparent, we will be able to continue in the same manner.

Love,
Gwyneth & Chris

Needless to say I found this theory around “conscious uncoupling” quite interesting and here’s what I found from Dr. Habib Sadeghi & Dr. Sherry Sami on conscious uncoupling:

A conscious uncoupling is the ability to understand that every irritation and argument was a signal to look inside ourselves and identify a negative internal object that needed healing. Because present events always trigger pain from a past event, it’s never the current situation that needs the real fixing. It’s just the echo of an older emotional injury. If we can remain conscious of this during our uncoupling, we will understand it’s how we relate to ourselves internally as we go through an experience that’s the real issue, not what’s actually happening.

Read full text here: http://www.goop.com/journal/be/conscious-uncoupling

I don’t know, if perhaps you can be that “conscious” during the break-up, maybe you didn’t need to break up at all. I wish them luck, but divorce especially with children involved can be a very messy business – conscious or not.