Can You Be Friends With Your Ex? 6 Helpful Tips

Let’s be trustworthy, breaking apart isn’t simple, particularly whenever you’ve poured a lot time and vitality right into a relationship with somebody who was as soon as an enormous a part of your life. Nonetheless, simply because a romantic relationship ends doesn’t imply the bond between you and your ex is solely gone. The concept of staying pals with an ex is one thing lots of people wrestle with. Is it doable? Is it wholesome? Whereas there’s no common reply, some {couples} can transition from lovers to pals, in the event that they strategy it rigorously and comply with a number of important pointers.

Listed below are six useful ideas for reconnecting with an ex and shifting from a previous romance to a wholesome friendship.

1. Give your self time to heal.

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Earlier than even contemplating being pals with an ex, it’s essential to permit each your self and them sufficient area to heal. Emotional wounds, whereas they might appear to heal shortly, can take time. Diving right into a friendship a number of weeks after a breakup could also be too quickly and might create confusion — and even worse — reopen previous wounds that each of you might not be prepared for. Ideally, give your self a number of months or a 12 months to actually course of the breakup and attain a spot of emotional stability. 

“Taking area, nonetheless, that appears for you, helps you to replicate on and settle for the top of your romantic relationship,” Idit Sharon, a Miami-based {couples} therapist, instructed SELF in an article revealed Jan. 23. “That approach, you possibly can strategy a possible friendship with a transparent thoughts and keep away from dragging unresolved emotions into your new dynamic.” 

Sharon says that a great way to gauge when you ought to reconnect to rebuild a friendship along with your ex is when you possibly can view the breakup extra neutrally and when there are zero emotions hooked up. Time will even enable you achieve perspective on the connection and what you really need from a future friendship, so be affected person with the method.