How to Recover When Your Girlfriend Say Don't Love You Anymore
It's a tough
thing to hear, but your life is not over. Sometimes it can even be a lesson — a
hard one, but a good one.
Most people
will probably experience the heartbreak of hearing “I don’t love you
anymore” at least once in their lives.
That’s a
tough thing for anyone to hear, especially when that person is still
“everything” to you. It sounds like we’re being attacked personally because, in
our minds, it implies “I’m not good enough.”
After all, if
you were, they would still love you, right?
In reality,
our personal value has nothing to do with another persons’ feelings or
thoughts. At least, it shouldn’t be. If someone doesn’t love us, that’s their
loss.
Sometimes it
can even be a lesson — a hard one, but a good one.
Here’s How to Recover when Your Girlfriend Says, ‘I Don’t Love You Anymore’
Overvaluing Opinions Kills Self-Esteem
Basing our
self-worth on an ex’s opinion is like being a puppet on strings.
Imagine life
as a video game and you could hear peoples’ thoughts as you walked down the
street. Each time someone thought something positive about you, that would be
one point in your favor; every time they thought something negative, you’d lose
a point.
By giving too
much weight to our partner’s opinions, we give them power over us. And when the
relationship ends, we’re crushed if they say anything hurtful. No one’s opinion
comes without baggage and numerous filters that change how they view reality.
Thoughts don’t usually represent reality; they’re just a model of reality that
is often inaccurate.
In this game,
you’re at the disposal of random strangers and your points, or value, are based
on who you ran into that day. It would be pretty ridiculous, wouldn’t it?
That’s how many of us assign value to ourselves.
We get high
when someone’s opinion favors us and crash whenever someone says something
negative. It’s an emotional roller coaster based on other peoples’ fleeting
thoughts. It’s hard to build self-esteem and confidence when it’s
torn down because of changing opinions.
By giving too
much weight to our partner’s opinions, we give them power over us. And when the
relationship ends, we’re crushed if they say anything hurtful. No one’s opinion
comes without baggage and numerous filters that change how they view reality.
Thoughts don’t usually represent reality; they’re just a model of reality that
is often inaccurate.
Healing Through Refocusing
Once, after a
messy breakup, I couldn’t focus on my work. The distraction was in the back of
my mind, always drawing me back to think about her and her cold words. This
went on for a few days until I realized I was doing it to myself. Her words
weren’t nice, but so what? I had things to do and a life to create; she
was irrelevant.
I
realized focusing on her was the problem because I was recycling
painful thoughts in my head all day. As someone once said, we smear ourselves
in garbage and then ask, “why does life smell so bad?”
We smear
ourselves in garbage and then ask, ‘why does life smell so bad?’
I changed
that by refocusing on my work and my big project, and the broken record in my
mind stopped playing. By stewing in negative thoughts and replaying sad words
in our heads, all we do is prolong suffering.
It’s not as
simple as just thinking it away, but changing our point of focus and working on
something worthwhile has a cathartic effect. Time doesn’t heal, what we focus
on heals.
Active Healing
The
experience of dealing with a breakup can make you stronger. That is, if you
actively deal with it.
I’ve known
plenty of people who were emotionally wrecked by breakups, only to repeat the
same cycle every time, never getting better. That’s why it’s important not to
be a puppet of our emotions.
Don’t sit
around thinking about their words — get out and do something actively in order
to heal. When progress is made toward our ambitions, we feel great.
It’s so much
easier to get over a breakup while growing something significant that requires
our attention. It’s impossible to focus on two things at the same time, so work
on something that requires your full attention.
Don’t sit
around thinking about their words — get out and do something actively in order
to heal.
A lot of
epiphanies can come to us when we’re proactive and not just letting
things happen to us. Not working on anything big in your life? That could be
one of the problems.
Reconnect With Friends And Family
A lot of
serious relationships end up alienating us from our friends and
family, and very few things will amplify pain from a breakup more than being
isolated. It’s easy feel lonely when we’re disconnected from everyone around
us.
Making our
romantic relationship our only relationship is like setting a trap for
ourselves, so get back in touch with friends and set up some coffee dates.
Go hang out
with old buddies and reconnect. Reach out to family by making some casual phone
calls each week. Reestablishing and revitalizing those connections will breathe
new life into you when you feel like part of you is gone forever.
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