According to data released by the National Center for Health Statistics, there were 2,132,853 marriages recorded in the U.S. in 2018. From these marriages, 782,038 filed for divorce in 45 States plus the country’s capital, D.C. The recorded divorce rate for the same year was 2.9 for every 1,000 population. Judging from these numbers, divorce attorneys across the country were quite busy throughout that year.
If you count yourself among those divorcees or if you just came out of a failed romantic relationship, recovering from it can be quite difficult. This is particularly true if your breakup was quite traumatic or worse, violent. As such, it’s critical that you know the steps you should take to quickly get back on your feet and actually emerge stronger from a devastating experience.
Here are six simple ways on how you can bounce back from a failed relationship and emerge a better, stronger person:
Mourn if you must.
While many of your friends or family members might suggest otherwise, mourning a failed love is actually a healthy personal exercise. This is because grief is a perfectly human emotion that one need not fight. In fact, there could be times when keeping negative emotions for far too long can have devastating effects on a person. So, cry, shout, and feel sad if you really must to release all the negative emotions inside you. But be sure to set a deadline on how long your grieving process would take since wallowing in your grief for far too long is only going to make matters worse.
Take on a meaningful project.
It doesn’t have to be grand or ambitious. It can be as simple as volunteering in a local shelter or finishing that long-delayed creative pursuit. The idea is to do something that would not only keep you away from thinking about your failed relationship but also have deep meaning to it, personally or for other people.
Take great care of yourself.
While it’s very tempting to drink or party your grief away, it can only put you deeper in desperation and anxiety. While drinking may seem like a nice and quick way to forget, it’s actually one of the last things you should be doing. Waking up with a huge hangover from last night’s party is not a pretty picture at all. Instead, do things that would make you appreciate and love yourself even more. You can enroll in a fitness program, have a day at the spa, travel to a serene location, or hit the road on an epic cross-country trip. It doesn’t matter how you want to do it but the key is to take great care of your physical and mental health so you’ll eventually feel good about yourself.
Communicate with friends and family.
There are people in the phase of moving on who think that veering away from any close contact with loved ones and friends is a novel idea. That could not be farther from the truth. Instead of locking yourself out and pushing everyone away, establish constant and meaningful communications with anyone who shows concern over your current situation. By being close with people who care for you, you’ll feel loved and that critical sense of importance that your past relationship may have failed to provide you with.
Have a social media holiday.
Quite many individuals who are still in the moving on period make the terrible mistake of constantly checking up on their ex’s social media accounts. While some would argue that there is nothing with it and that it’s actually a sign of maturity, it can backfire in a terribly big way. Just think about the scenario of one day scrolling through your ex-partner’s Instagram posts and then finding out that the person is already madly in love with someone and seems to quite proud of it.
Meanwhile, you are in your dark and lonely room still wallowing in your grief and looking all miserable. Not a pretty though, right? So, do yourself a favor and go on a social media break while you’re still composing yourself and letting the pain of the breakup subside.
Date if you must but don’t rush yourself into entering a new relationship.
A big part of recovering from a breakup is getting into the dating scene anew. It’s okay and it could actually hasten the recovery period. However, never confuse entering into a new relationship as the perfect pill to swallow for a full recovery. That is never, and would never be, the right answer to your problem. Instead, try to be as deliberate and careful as possible as you date people by taking your sweet time to know them deeper and determining who best matches or complements your personality. This way, you won’t end up regretting your decision of falling in love again and risking another heartbreak.
Bouncing back stronger from a painful breakup can be hard but possible. With these tips, your moving on process should be easier and quicker.
