Dumped? Ten Healthy Ways to Heal

Ice cream, alcohol, meaningless hookups: the go-to antidotes for a bad breakup are often about distraction rather than relief. What’s more, they tend to injure more than assuage, as if the breakup itself didn’t cause enough pain. Here, we’ve identified ten healthy ways to deal with getting dumped that don’t include booze, food, or flings:
1. Buy the Dumped! Fun and Games Activity Book, which offers such whimsical games as “I Cried to Smell Few (I Tried to Tell You).” Help broken-hearted “Sam” decipher what his friends have been telling him about his now ex-girlfriend in lines such as “Why stink clue fan screw fetter.” Translation: “I think you can do better.”
2. Surround yourself with happy people. Recent research from Harvard and the University of California, San Diego shows happiness is “infectious,” so take up with a group of friends or organization that you know is high on life.
3. Log on to justbeendumped. wordpress. com and submit your breakup emails or IM conversations. The names are changed, so it’s an anonymous way to have complete strangers tell you what a jerk he was. Your friends need a break anyway.
4. Listen to these ten breakup songs of the year. From Pink to Kanye, these tunes are all about getting back on your feet.
5. Learn boxing. Boxinggyms.com lists location around the country. Get angry—then get ripped.
6. Give your home a makeover. Following feng shui principles can help you clear out the emotional and physical clutter from your previously shared space. 7. Get even without getting a restraining order: practice your frustrations on a voodoo doll instead.
8. Write. Whether on a blog, in a journal, or in a letter you may decide never to send, getting the words from brain to paper or screen can improve your mental and physical health.
9. Volunteer for a cause you feel passionate about or to help those whose plight might give you a new perspective on your own. VolunteerMatch can help you find the right place and the right time.
10. Fall in love with a new scent. Learn to associate the smell of a new perfume, candle, flower, or detergent—even— with your new, improved, and single self. Take a sniff every time the breakup blues arise.
Of course, sometimes a glass (okay, or a bottle) of wine, meeting someone new, or buying a hot new dress is the just what the doctor ordered. Ultimately, do what feels right to you.

Of course the original writer of the above short essay is a girl, but it should apply a guy as well

Related Posts by Category