Love Advice: Getting Over a Breakup: What Are the Steps in 2025?
Getting over a breakup is a complicated thing. Even when handled with compassion, it’s hard to get back to well-being quickly.
It has the power to profoundly shake your soul. It will cause you to question your trust and faith in love itself.
If you weren’t the one who broke up, you’ll be wrapped up in the pain of rejection and the mourning of a lost love.
When you are the one who chose to end the relationship, your sadness will be tinged with guilt. Even in the most friendly and mutual situations, a breakup is an end.
Today, people make us feel that the end of a romantic relationship is a failure. What are the steps to grieving a romantic relationship in 2025?
Getting Over a Breakup: Learn More About It
In reality, breakups are often the life-changing precursor to a new and improved life, so during those first brutal days and weeks, you have every right to feel inconsolable.
With time, however, you will be able to move on. A breakdown can leave you in total distress, forcing you to overanalyze.
Not only is this something that is not good for your self-esteem and self-confidence, but your mental and physical health can also suffer.
So, you need to be on a healthier path to getting over a breakup.
It’s a path that will not only help you move forward but will also allow you to grow and learn things about yourself in the process.
Here are some ways to start feeling better fast.
1. Review your self-esteem level
When your ex-partner is the one who caused your breakup, it wouldn’t be unusual for you to start criticizing your appearance and personality.
You might wonder where your shortcomings lie. You’ll wonder what might make someone stop loving you.
So, try to focus on the things you really appreciate about yourself and the benefits you have brought to the relationship.
Do this instead of torturing yourself with qualities you will never possess. Write a short list and analyze your character traits, emotional strengths, skills, abilities, and any other qualities that have value in a relationship.
If you’re having trouble coming up with good ideas, turn to your friends and family. They will eagerly express their gratitude for your significant role in their lives.
2. Give yourself time to grieve
No matter the circumstances of your breakup, your feelings are valid, and you should treat them as a journey.
You lose a huge part of your life when you break up with someone. Even if it was mutually agreed upon. Maybe they were a friend, a soulmate, a confidant, and a roommate.
This person has probably been a part of your daily life for some time, and you need to grieve the loss as you would a death.
If your sadness persists for months, it indicates that you have an emotional dependency. Thus, you must make an appointment with a therapist or attend a personal development session to free yourself from these negative emotions.
3. Take care of your body
After a breakup, it’s essential to take care of your body and avoid giving in to romantic comedy clichés.
Sometimes it’s tempting to rush in and fall into some unhealthy habits. This could be your diet, your alcohol consumption, and even your sleep when you’re going through a breakup.
In fact, this is the perfect time to redouble our efforts when we talk about health.
So, the weeks following breakups are very stressful. This can have a very detrimental effect on your body, largely due to elevated levels of a hormone called cortisol.
So, give your mind and metabolism the tools that can combat this stress and might also aid in the healing mechanism.
What does this mean exactly? Take your breakup as an opportunity to create new habits that nourish your body and mind.
Do activities that have nothing to do with your ex-partner, like getting enough sleep, eating healthy and calming foods, and going out and moving. You can also start a new relationship, even if it is not serious.
4. Avoid rebound relationships
A rebound relationship helps you feel valuable or sexy, but it’s temporary. While it’s healthy and smart to date other people after a rough patch in love, you need to be careful.
If you date someone else too soon, once the euphoria wears off, you’re bound to feel a lot of guilt.
Many people feel remorse when they realize that a rebound relationship is only superficial. Even though some of them may have feelings for the person, it won’t last long.
Impulsive decisions indicate a search for a solution to prevent heartbreak.
Acknowledge the pain you may feel, cry, and understand that being a responsible individual means dealing with it. Be willing to look for ways to control your pain!
5. Find a new hobby
A relationship may end because it was long distance. In this case, things that can help you are to go out and try new things.
If you are being ghosted, do activities that will take your mind off the sadness of rejection.
Join a new dance class, meet other people, and take on new projects that you can invest your energy in.
To stop feeling abandoned, let yourself go in a new exciting activity!
6. Consider deleting your ex’s number temporarily
You both may have said that you would remain friends. A post-breakup friendship can very well be maintained over time, but time is the key word here.
Very few exes make a seamless transition to friendship right away. If you think you’ve succeeded, see what happens when one of you starts dating someone new.
If the breakup was caused by your ex, delete his number from your phone book so you don’t want to contact him.
This way you can avoid the dreaded drunk call and won’t be able to send him ill-advised text messages. When romantic relationships end, it’s crucial to remain vigilant and avoid getting involved!
7. Getting over a breakup: Enjoy the moments of solitude
If you want to get over a breakup, you need to spend some time alone to do so. You can also use this time to reflect on your relationship and rejuvenate yourself.
It’s good to know that there are many benefits when you take time for yourself.
There is evidence that introspection increases creativity, reduces the risk of depression, and reduces the intensity of negative emotions.
It is the only way to mend emotional wounds and rebuild your life following a romantic breakup.
To be more specific, there’s no harm in skipping happy hour in favor of a relaxing weekend at home, or simply curling up with your dog or cat and immersing yourself in a good book.
The key is to distinguish between alone time and self-imposed isolation. You should avoid the latter at all costs. A healthy level of solitude is always energizing and grounding, not exhausting.
8. A conscious walk down memory lane
When your mind wanders, you often get stuck on remembering the good times you had with your ex and forget to take the bad times into account.
You are aware of the things you deliberately failed to mention during your romantic getaways or nights out with friends. One of your first thoughts might be that your vacation was perfect.
Remember that you didn’t communicate for two days because you had an argument on the plane. Remember that every time you went on a trip, it was with a lot of anxiety because your spouse never arrived on time.
In other words, you must make it a point of honor not to forget your flaws. Even if your subconscious prioritizes the positive elements, maintain a realistic image!
9. Protect your heart by doing a social media purge
Whether you’re scrolling through old photos of happier times, social media can be a potent source of heartbreak.
And when you hit the refresh button on your ex’s profile to analyze every update, that’s weird too.
Plus, trying to decode whether your ex is happy when he posts a vacation photo will only make you feel worse!
No matter what a hurt ex says to you, it’s not a bad thing to delete them from your list. Don’t hesitate to block them in the name of sanity.
You can also choose to block this person for a month so that they don’t appear in your feed. However, you will also have to be willful to avoid viewing their profile.
The same goes for their friends and family. If you think this will only make you obsess over your ex’s every move, mute or delete them from your social media.
10. Getting Over a Breakup: Feel Your Emotions
There is no time limit to recovering from a breakup. It can take a very long time. Regardless, you need to know that it’s okay.
Everyone has their own rhythm. You have to learn to know it by listening to the little voice inside you. The feelings that come from deep inside you are usually specific to the current situation.
If you wish them away, it’s not something that will make you heal a little faster. The quickest road to healing is a direct one.
So, make sure you have enough time to really feel things out. Set aside fifteen minutes or so to take stock of your relationship and what it means to you.
As long as the time is up, you can enjoy your days. This is a situation that will allow you to pursue your goal while allowing time for reflection and emotional healing. If that doesn’t work, try couples therapy.
11. Note their negative qualities
Sometimes you hear people say that if someone has nothing to say, they should keep quiet. However, this time, you should make an exception.
Make a comprehensive list of the reasons why this person was not the right person for you. Think about the many irritating aspects of him or her as well as the compromises you were forced to make when you were in this love affair.
Keep this list on your phone so you can refer to it whenever you start thinking your ex was so perfect.
After a romantic breakup, it is normal to idealize the relationship and the person at the same time. However, if this happens too often, it is more or less a problem!
12. Getting Over a Breakup: Make Plans with Friends
In the first few days after a romantic disappointment, you’re likely not feeling very well, so try to distract yourself as much as possible.
Make plans with your friends so you don’t have time to feel sorry for yourself. Set up a dinner date with your best friend, and if it turns into a multi-hour outing, great!
If you’re the type to neglect friendships when you’re in love, apologize to your friends and show that you no longer intend to do so.
You could also devote your energy to forging new friendships. Before extending invitations, remember to stick strictly to friends who make you feel your best, rather than those who don’t.
After a breakup, your heart will be like a little wounded animal, and it needs to be pampered!
13. Give up on the idea of meeting to move on.
Everyone knows that life is not like a romantic movie. However, sometimes you may find yourself wanting to have a dramatic breakup where you say, “My boyfriend cheated on me” or “He was secretly in love with his cousin,” so that you can grieve the relationship.
Unfortunately, things that happen in real life are very different, and after a breakup, we are often unhappy.
We wonder why things happened this way. What we need to understand is that behind a desperate need to forget the past, the desire to be together again is hidden.
There is this fantasy that if you keep asking questions, you will discover something that will allow you to undo what happened and you will get back together with your ex-partner.
The best option is to accept that you weren’t meant to be together in the first place. If the other person can’t explain why they don’t want to be with you anymore.
You have to tell yourself that your ex didn’t want to commit or that he wasn’t in love with you. This is the only explanation you should consider to close this chapter.
These explanations include: “I deserve someone who can commit.” “I deserve someone who can love me enough.” “I deserve someone who appreciates all that I am.”
14. Take up the things you like to do, but they didn’t.
Remember how Indian food was your favorite, but your ex always refused the takeout option?
Order curry tonight and enjoy the taste of sweet freedom. When we meet someone new and start spending a lot of time with them, some of our favorite activities can easily disappear.
Now that the relationship is over, it’s time for you to start practicing yoga, cycling, board games, whatever made you happy and maybe got put aside while you were together, daily.
The things you should do are to try exciting and new experiences. All this while pursuing the goals that promote your moral values.
It’s all about balance. Rethink your lifestyle and start living again!
15. Travel and explore new places
Create new mental space by exploring a new place. It doesn’t have to be a lavish solo trip.
Start by changing the way home or going to a restaurant you’ve both never been to.
When you’re in a relationship, it’s easy to get stuck in the same places, doing the same things. Push yourself to explore other parts of the city that you’ve never been to. Take a weekend trip to a place you’ve been meaning to visit but haven’t had time to.
16. Establish a bedtime routine
When you’re going through a breakup, learning to be proud of the little things can really help you get through it.
It is recommended to go to bed at the same time and set your alarm for the same time every day. Avoid looking at screens, i.e., TV, computer, mobile phone, for half an hour before going to bed.
Not only does the light from screens make it hard to sleep, but how many times has an unexpected drama on the timeline or an innocent Instagram scroll turned into a two-hour activity?
Instead of thinking, “I feel so lonely.” “I will never find another partner.” “What will happen during the holidays?”
» Think about the things you can do right now. Whether it’s spending more time with friends, changing careers and moving to a different city, or simply enjoying less relationship stress in your daily life, focus on something else.
Write down those thoughts. Research shows that writing down negative thoughts in a journal is more helpful than not writing at all.
Forcing yourself to focus on the positive aspects of being single is especially effective when it comes to moving on.
The final word
In order to get over a breakup, you must first forgive. Forgive yourself for the mistakes you made in the relationship, and forgive the other person.
We don’t forgive for the other person; we forgive for ourselves.
Letting go of bitterness will help you get that friendship back with an ex eventually, if you both want to. More importantly, it will help you move on.
