5 Stages of a Breakup
It becomes a cycle until you practice self-love.
The end of a relationship is never easy.
Even if you ended a toxic relationship, that did you more bad than good, you always find yourself remembering the good times you shared with your partner.
It often goes through 5 stages, 4 of which might circle back if you don’t find the strength to move on.
Sadness
After the breakup, you are engulfed in sadness and cry for days. You don’t like talking with anyone or to be social at all.
You’re fully depressed thinking about the love that has left and that hinders every other aspect of your life.
Busy
You start to seek peace and. There are no more tears, but only because you bury yourself in work.
You try to be social again, hang out, and finally start being a little happy for a couple of months.
With so much going on, you don’t find yourself thinking about the lost love so much.
Dating
You want to step out and start thinking that you might need someone after some time.
Whether you want to fill your physical or emotional needs, it doesn't matter. So you start dating again and there begins a process of trial and error.
Most of the dates become errors though, as you are more alert to possible red flags or make unconscious comparisons with your former partner.
Relapse
The stage you seek to avoid.
You are happy but, by luck of the draw, you bump into your former partner. Worst of all, you see them with someone else — maybe they’re also in the process of trial and error.
Regardless, you relapse into sadness, become jealous, and start feeling lonely.
Unfortunately, you’re back to the first stage.
Self-love
The stage where you break the cycle.
You start investing in yourself and begin to care less about what happened in the past.
Whatever the other person is doing with their life no longer bothers you.
All you care about is focusing on what makes you feel and be better. And you actually do.
Congratulations, you overcame the breakup.
The moment you break the cycle and practice self-love, you are ready to overcome any bad situation life might throw at you.
It doesn’t mean it will all be sunshine and rainbows, though. Life will just be a little bit easier to walk, and that’s what matters.
Inspired by a fellow creator, I decided to challenge myself to publish 100 short-form articles within January. This is article number 48.
