Going Through A Break Up?
Relationships don’t always end in fairy tales like they do in movies. In fact, it’s quite common for people to grow apart and go separate ways. The process of losing a relationship can be a painful one. However, no matter how bad the pain may get, it will subside one day. You can make this process a bit easier to endure with the right tips.
Check out these tips from U.S. News.
Getting over a broken heart is never easy, especially in the social networking age, when photos of you and your ex in happier times remain plastered on your friends’ Facebook pages. Worse, recent research suggests that romantic rejection can cause physical pain in a way that no other negative emotion—not even anger or fear—can.
But it’s actually good to go through the insane despair and bouts of endless tears that result from being dumped, contends bestselling author and relationship expert Susan Piver. We should embrace these feelings rather than run from them, she argues in her book, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart. “As unlikely as it may sound, this sorrow is the gateway to lasting happiness,” she writes, speaking of her own two-year experience recovering from heartbreak. Piver and other experts described ways to ride through those uninvited waves of grief.
1. Make friends with your heartbreak.
You may be tempted to try and forge past it, numbing the pain with rebound sex or a date with a gallon of ice cream. Or you may harden your heart and swear off all future relationships. But that’s the cowardly approach, and one that won’t serve you well in the long run. “It takes a lot of courage to be sad,” says Piver, “but a fantastic life is not one that is placidly happy.” With grieving comes increased awareness: of what’s truly important to you; whom you love; who loves you. “Of course, no one wants to feel that way, myself included,” Piver adds, “but if you allow [the sadness] to teach you, it actually will resolve faster than any effort to fight it.”
2. Deal appropriately with negative thoughts.
Meditation is a great way to quiet the mind and help deal with the tendency to beat yourself up for things going wrong, says Piver, a practicing Buddhist. Another approach when negative thoughts are running endlessly through your mind is to get up and do something else. “Take a walk or call someone who’s having difficulty and try to think of them instead of yourself,” says Piver. You can also try examining your thoughts from a distance. “Let them just rush in, like a stream rushing by,” Piver recommends. “Feel your feelings without telling yourself a story about them.”
When Piver was at the lowest point of her heartbreak, she took her sadness to mean that she’d never feel happy again, had no chance of meeting anyone, and even if she did meet someone, she’d probably wind up being a total jerk and woman-hater. These thoughts just plunged her deeper into prolonged sadness. Simply acknowledging to yourself what you’re feeling (hopelessness, despair, fear) without drawing any conclusions from those feelings, she says, will allow your mind to process the grief more quickly and return to a more balanced state.
3. Turn up the radio.
Science suggests that music has a therapeutic effect. (No, not that breakup album with the sad, lovesick songs.) Blare some of your favorite, feel-good tunes: Listening to them can trigger the release of endorphins, lifting your spirits and combating stress.
Image Credit: pixabay
To see the who article, U.S. News
