- You can practice self-care through journaling, reading, listening to music, creating art, do things that bring you fulfilment and contentment.
- Avoid going through your old pictures, texts, or memories especially when they bring you sadness.
Breakups come in different forms from romantic relationships to friendships. Getting through a breakup can be rough, difficult, and messy.
But friendship breakups are not talked about enough. Friendship breakups are the worst, we can all agree depending on the depth of our friendship with the other party.
Imagine losing your best friend, tough, right? You can decide to end the friendship or it can just end. Friendship breakups can happen due to several reasons.
These include when one party feels taken for granted, lack of effective communication, selfishness, lack of frequent interactions, being in different seasons, and competition or jealousy among others.
We have at one time experienced friendship breakups, personally, it happened as 2021 was ending. It was not the first friendship breakup but it was the most hurting during that season of my life.
However, some tips can help get through the breakup.
Friends are our community, our squad, and they form part of our support system, losing them is normal, and making new ones is allowed, but why do they hurt the most?
It is either you were putting effort than the other person so you get hurt the most. Sometimes it's because we thought they would be in our lives till the end but life is seasonal, some people are not meant to be in till the end.
We lose some along the way, we meet them somewhere down the road, and others we meet in another lifetime.
Before we continue, if you want to end a friendship with someone, tell them and communicate. It helps ease the break up instead of leaving them guessing.
How to deal with friendship breakups
Acknowledge your emotions - Just like death, breakups have stages of grief. Denial, bargaining, anger, depression and acceptance. Let life take its cause don't go around seeking vengeance.
When going through the breakup assess, acknowledge and be aware of your emotions. Feel the emotions the anger, the pain, the cry, and validate the emotions.
The pain is as valid as that of any other relationship.
Take care of yourself - You have broken up with your friend but do not go and dump your life.
Prioritize yourself even as you feel the emotions. If depression kicks in, seek help.
You can practice self-care through journaling, reading, listening to music, creating art, do things that bring you fulfilment and contentment.
Avoid going through your old pictures, texts, or memories especially when they bring you sadness.
Seek help - This can be professional (therapy) or from your other friends (close ) or your family (depending on your relationship with them).
Put yourself out there - though trying out activities that bring you joy – painting or want to try and be open to making new friendships.
As you go through the breakup self reflect on your contribution to the friendship ending and own it, work on it and take the good and the bad together from the friendship.