I (21F) have been with my boyfriend (22M) for 8 months and we were good friends for a couple years after a hookup in our teens.
While we were just friends, he dated a girl briefly (they’re still friends now) and I dated a guy who manipulated and lied to me for most of the time that we were seeing each other, also verbally abused me in front of our mutual friends. It was truly the worst thing that ever happened to me and I lost so much of myself because of that. Some time after I started my healing process, I reconnected with my boyfriend in a more romantic way and we ended up falling in love and started to date.
Being with my boyfriend has helped speed up my healing process a lot. He’s very loving and kind, all our arguments or issues are handled in a very healthy way too. However, we did have a major issue resulting from his selfish actions in the beginning of our relationship but he apologized and promised to never repeat it and that he’s going to work on it and he’s kept his promise. Yet it still hurts me until today and I’m looking for advice on how to heal from his mistake because he has been trying his best to make it up to me.
I think constantly getting hurt in my previous relationship makes it harder for me to heal when/if I get hurt in this relationship even if my boyfriend doesn’t mean to. I already talk to him about it whenever necessary, but I’d also like insights on how I can forgive and forget better.
Tl;dr: finally in a healthy relationship but struggles to forgive boyfriend’s wrongdoing although he’s worked hard to fix it.