Your Breakup Doesn’t Have To Break You

Your heart cracks with every step he takes away from you. You feel your insides become frail as you ponder your life without him. You feel broken, irreparable, incomplete. Maybe you cry a lot, maybe you vent to friends, maybe you lock yourself in your room and hope it was all just a bad dream.

How could he just walk away? How could he shut the door, and not look back?

You feel like it’s your fault. You fluctuate between sadness, anger, depression, and rage. You find yourself trying to find meaning in the end, but there’s no meaning to be found. Your breakup stretches the capabilities of your soul, and pain floods your heart.

But no matter how hard it is, a breakup doesn’t have to break you.

While this might be the end of your relationship, it doesn’t have to be the end of you. It doesn’t have to be the end of your bright smile, your optimistic spirit, or your cheerful attitude. It doesn’t have to be the end of your tremendous capacity to love, or your ability to be a wonderful girlfriend to someone down the road.

You are still strong. You are still here. You are still you.

Give yourself time. Healing is often a long road, and there is no timetable to the destination — you just have to start heading there.

Let yourself grieve. You’ve lost something deeply important to you. It is normal to let yourself feel that.

Surround yourself with supportive friends. These are the people who will sit with you and eat a pint of ice cream while ALSO pushing you to go out and re-explore yourself when you are ready.

And slowly, you will heal.

It won’t happen overnight or in a minute. It won’t magically occur as you sleep, or after a few days. But day by day, week by week, you will rediscover the joy in your life.

You will find the strength from within to duct-tape your tender heart back together.

You will celebrate the little things again, and find joy in the blooming flowers and the browning leaves.

You will be cautious at first. That’s okay. That’s natural. But eventually you will let your heart explore, you will let it linger on someone new.

And by the time you find your forever love, you’ll be stronger because of it. You’ll be confident, you’ll be brave, and you’ll be ready. Because you may have had a breakup, but you did not let it break you.