A lot of us have the same breakup routine: Gather your friends, list all the reasons you were too good for them anyways, cry your eyes out and OD on Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.
Well friends, it’s 2012 and the post breakup routine has changed! Instead of mourning the loss of a relationship, people are rightfully celebrating the opportunity for new ones! With high divorce rates and people staying single longer, there are more available adults now than there has been in through the 2000′s so far.
Instead of taking time to wallow after a breakup, spend your time picking yourself up and moving on!
Here are the 5 new break-up musts:
Don’t Drastically Change Your Look!
A lot of people get the spur-of-the-moment idea that changing your look will change your life. If you feel different about your appearance, maybe you’ll feel different about the rest of your day-to-day! Chances are the only thing that’s going to come of an appearance change is regret from the overly expensive haircut you just got. If you really think you want to do something different, do it with an outfit or with make-up. Your breakup sadness is only temporary, so make sure you have the option of having your physical change be temporary, too.
Clean Your Space
Whether it’s been three months or three years, chances are you have reminders of them around your place. Pictures, presents, bed sheets and CDs can all contain constant reminders of lovers past, so stick the items with emotional attachment to your ex in a box and put it somewhere unseen until you’ve had time to settle down. Once you have a clear head, you can take the box back out and decide what you really want to keep, and what you need to toss.
Unfriend
We all have a tendency to e-stalk our exes for a few weeks after the breakup. Alright, let’s be serious… It’s more like a few months. If you’re keeping tabs on what they’re doing, who they’re with and how they are, you’re not giving your mind the time it needs to think about what life would be like without them. What’s the easiest way to insure you won’t fall into the stalking game? Delete them! Take them out of your BBM, Facebook, Twitter, iPhone… Whatever else you have that will give you easy access to your ex. Out of sight, out of mind!
Take A Trip
Who hasn’t wanted to see the south of France? Or the Brooklyn Bridge? Or the little bed and breakfast down the street from your house? Having a new experience without your ex is a refreshing way to remind you that life does go on! Treat yourself to a trip. It doesn’t need to be far and it doesn’t need to be expensive, but even the smallest and shortest trips will make you feel better.
Socialize!
Remember back before you were dating your now former lover? How often you’d go out with your friends and have a great time and smile and laugh and genuinely enjoy life? Those times haven’t stopped, you’ve simply stopped participating in them. Take time to call the friends you’ve lost touch with, and even the ones you haven’t, and set up one-on-one time with each of them. It’s an easy way to fill up your schedule and get your mind on the positive things in life.
Breakups are hard, but they don’t have to be dreadful! Instead of crying a river, take a few deep breaths and start moving on.