By Erica “RivaFlowz” Buddington

I was sixteen when my heart was broken for the first time. I remember clutching my chest, convinced the muscle was going to fall out of my chest. It took me a week to realize that it wouldn’t, a month to stop gripping my fists in anger and a year to breathe without a tinge of sadness stinging my core. After that first heartache, I took note of all the things that helped my healing process. When the serious relationships of my early twenties began to fall apart, with each one, I hurt a little less each time.

Articles, advice, and books on how to tag him, bag him and snag him surround us. However, it’s rare that these texts dwindle on how to cure yourself when he leaves. A lot of women actually prolong the process; listening to sad love songs, flipping through Facebook photos (to delete them) and analyzing every instance that led up to the relationship’s demise. This is not the way to heal. In fact, I’ve found ten ways that help assist the mending of my sorrow: