My wife has decided to move out. I’m dealing with it the best I can but my house feels so empty right now that it doesn’t feel like home. I have a few projects to do around the house to keep me occupied but I just need some advice on how to keep sane right now.
Don't give her a dime, sue for loss of affection if you can.
Mine grabbed the kids and ran off while I was tending to my son's baseball team fundraiser. Then my mom was committed and died ... then my dad died. Then I had 2 heart attacks and died on the way to the hospital. Of course the ex's departure was partially due to my half-brother raping my youngest daughter and being barely punished by the juvenile system. I was, to say the least, destroyed. Emotionally, spiritually, financially, "careerly". The only relative I had left was my sister and she moved away and had no time to talk. I was living a jerry springer life.
Absent anything else in my life at all I turned to secular buddhism - the place where it was best NOT to have any of those ties. I learned to find happiness within myself and in the moment. There was no magic deity or mystical advice that was gonna turn my life around. Everyone I'd ever had in my life left me or died. I could only rely on me so that's just what I did. I can honestly say that 20 years later I am more content than any other time in my life. I rebuilt my inner self. You gotta find your path to personal happiness.
Doing the projects might be a good idea. When this happened in my life in 2014 I started in with every possible project I could do. It kept me busy and was rewarding in the end. I had kitchen chairs refurbed and did everything you could think of to make things around me better. Later on I looked at what I had done and thought the inner message was "maybe I cannot save my marriage but I will save everything else around me."
I have some remodeling to do and some clean up around the farm. I have projects to last a lifetime to be honest.
There's a saying that I like: The best way to get over someone is to get under someone.
Time to go out and meet new women. The choice to end it was hers. It makes no sense to sit around punishing yourself because she happened to decide that she didn't wish to be in the relationship anymore.
Get on a plane and take a trip to somewhere like Costa Rica where the women aren't nearly as uptight about sex and having fun as they are here in the United States.
Enjoy your life. You only have one to live, and a finite amount of time to live it at that. Don't waste a moment of it sitting in dark rooms shedding tears over people who decide that they no longer want to share that life with you.
Don't drink. If you have guns in the house give them to your friend to hold for you. Put a down payment on some land, build yourself a new house. Remember the girls you dated before you met the wife? In time you'll think of her the same way, just someone you use to know. Your next girl will be better than the last one.
I've been there. It sucks, but it does have it's positives if you think about it. If she doesn't want to be with you, then why do you want to be with her? Do what makes you happy, try not to do too many negative things to distract yourself, such and alcohol and/or drugs. One day at a time.Try not to make yourself sad, because it's natural to be sad. Good luck on a tough row to hoe.
Remember, you are what you are before you met your wife, regain your sense of independent self. Use the opportunity to regain what you lost.