How Long Should I Mourn a Breakup?

As with most affairs of the heart, there are easy, logical answers that don’t always jibe with your human response. Heartbreak can’t be cured through intellectual gymnastics alone. Nevertheless, we have to use our brains to guide the healing process.

You can allow yourself only one day for tortured devastation, self-pity and all-consuming grief. Maybe two days if it was long term and ended with unexpected betrayal.

Of course, you will not be over her by then, but you need to engage your intellect in some fashion at this point, or it will become an unhealthy situation in which you — and not your former girlfriend — become the main cause of your unending and deepening misery.

You need to do an assessment of what you still have in your life — friends, family, a job, health, good looks, charm, and the potential to find an even more suitable partner. Understand that there is no reason to give up.

Get out with your friends and live a normal life. When you have setbacks, remember that you’re looking at a fresh, exciting new start. You haven’t made any mistakes with your next girl yet!

Don’t think about how you should have handled things with your former lover. Think about how you will handle things with your new one.

A broken heart is proof that you know how to give yourself completely to a woman. Transform each thought and regret into a plan that will make you a better man, and you can have this breakup 95 percent behind you in exactly 23 days, 4 hours and 10 minutes.