Relationships

Healing from a broken relationship is a tough thing to do, but the good news is, it can be done. You just need to understand the process and allow yourself the time that you need.

One of the first things to remember is there is no time limit.  It will take you as much time as it takes you, period. There is no set rule on how long it should take you, though you still should be making some forward progress after a few months.  You may be a long way from being back to normal, but you should be starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

One word of caution, though: if you don’t seem to be making any progress at all, you may want to hire a therapist to help you through the worst of it.  Sometimes having an objective third party who can offer unbiased advice is a good way to help us jumpstart our recovery.  It may even help speed the process along a little, and who wouldn’t want that?

Another thing you can do to help speed things along is find yourself.  This may sound like strange advice but in most relationships you will lose a little of yourself.  This seems to be particularly common with women.  It’s easy to become a ‘we’ and lose a little ‘me’.  And a little of that isn’t a bad thing, but once the relationship has ended it’s time to get your ‘me’ back.

This process will help you heal and grow.  It will remind you that there was a time when you were happy without your ex.  This ‘reawakening’ can be a very exciting time and it can help dull at least some of the pain you’re feeling since the breakup.  If nothing else, it will give you something to occupy your mind with.

Spending time with family and friends will help you enormously too.  Surrounding yourself with people who love you will help you stay strong.  When in the midst of a bad breakup it’s easy to forget that you will be happy again.  It can be hard to see past that black hole, but if you’re with your family and friends they will help you feel the love that you are missing from your ex.

While this isn’t the time to wallow, it might not be a bad idea to remind yourself of the things in the relationship that made you unhappy, or mad, or both.  You don’t want to dwell on the relationship too much at this point but reminding yourself of the bad times might help you gain a little clarity and move the healing process along a little bit.

No matter how you choose to go about it, just remember that healing from a broken relationship is possible.  You will get through it and you will find love and happiness again.  If you learn from your past relationship you can take that knowledge with you into your next relationship which will help make that relationship even better.  Just hang in there.

For most people, it’s pretty easy to find love.  The challenge often seems to be to be able to make it last.  Keeping your love for each other strong is not impossible.  You just have to understand why it falls apart and make sure you, and your partner, avoid those traps.  That’s where love relationship advice comes in handy.

With the advent of online dating sites there are more ways than ever to meet ‘the one’.  It’s a much better method than cruising the bar scene looking for someone special.  For most couples the first few months is pretty easy.  You are falling in love and you think the other person is perfect.  You can see no wrong in them or what they do.  And maybe there isn’t anything wrong with the way they, or you, act in the early stages of a relationship.

They say that familiarity breeds contempt and if that’s true it would go a long way to explaining why the longer a relationship goes on the more it tends to break down.

Here is a list of some of the things you, and your partner, need to be on the lookout for in your relationship.  These are common traps that many couples fall into without realizing it.  If you know what to watch out for and can avoid these mistakes you will have a much better chance of keeping your relationship strong and healthy for a long time:

1. Unrealistic expectations.  As I said above we think our new love can do no wrong.  As our relationship slowly changes from falling in love to being in love and all the day to day stresses and mundane tasks we must face, it’s easy to lose some of that early ‘glow’.  This can be a pivotal time in many relationships, sometimes the couple will think that they just don’t love each other anymore and break up.

In reality, in any long term relationship, you will spend a much longer time in this ‘normal’ mode than you will in the early ‘glow’ mode.  It’s important to recognize that this is all a normal progression in an adult relationship.

2. Inability to effectively communicate.  Men and women express themselves differently…that’s just the way it is.  The good news is that you can learn to communicate with your partner effectively, if you’re willing to take some time to learn how. The whole ‘it’s a guy thing’ or ‘it’s a girl thing’ is only true to a point, and is largely just a cop out.  In reality any mature, intelligent adult should be able to learn how to talk to their partner, and even more importantly, listen to their partner.  The real question is do you care enough about your partner and the relationship to take the time?

3.  Don’t confuse sex with love.  This may sound obvious but men and women tend to look at sex in different ways.  Women, for example, tend to look at sex as a way to connect with someone they love on a deeper physical level.  Yes, it’s pleasurable, but the pleasure isn’t just physical it’s emotional as well.

Men tend to look at sex as definition of who they are as a man.  For them too, it’s pleasurable but it’s also a way to prove their desirability and masculinity.  Sometimes when a relationship gets to the ‘comfortable’ stage this difference in views about sex can create problems.  If one partner doesn’t seem sexually interested in the other partner it can create severe stress on the relationship.

If your relationship gets to this point, it might help if you and your partner can remember that sex is only one small component of every thing your relationship is made up of.  While for many couples, having an active sex life is an important part of the relationship, it’s important to understand that as you age and your relationship grows, it probably won’t be  quite as important as it once was. That doesn’t mean your partner doesn’t love you or find you attractive, it’s just a fairly common way for long term relationships to go.

I hope this love relationship advice will help you hold on to the love you’ve found.  Being able to make a deep, long lasting, connection with another person really is one of life’s blessings.  Make your connection last by learning how to avoid the pitfalls of some relationships.