Article: If you don’t take time to process your relationship, you will not be emotionally available when you start going on dates. The grieving process is important, and if you don’t follow it through, you may end up comparing your new date to your last partner.  You also want to ensure that you’re not bitter about how your last relationship ended. If you are, you may project this bitterness onto the new person or make them feel like you have too much emotional baggage to handle, making successful dating very difficult. Instead, work on forgiving your last partner. Forgiveness is the exercise of letting go of what you cannot change and not demanding justice for a wrong. It doesn’t mean letting someone treat you like a doormat. To gain closure and give yourself license to explore your identity again, you must fully believe the past relationship is over. Do whatever you need to do to prove that the relationship is truly dead.  If you were dumped, meet with the other person to hear her reasons for breaking up with you or watch her in a new relationship. If you’re the one trying to get out of the relationship, stop all contact with the former partner, move to a new location, or recall how much she damaged you or held you back. Studies have shown that your body actually experiences physical pain after a long-term relationship ends. This is because couples often end up dictating one another’s biological rhythms. This means disrupted sleep, loss of appetite, and change in rates of temperature and heart rate. After a breakup, keep your physical body in good shape even if you don’t feel like it. As you take time to forgive the other person and get used to being without him, your physical body will adjust. More than physical recovery, mental recovery is key for moving on. A breakup affects the way you perceive yourself and your level of self-esteem. Studies show that clearly defining who you are after breaking up with someone is the most important part of being able to move on.  You may not remember who you are without the other person. Re-identifying yourself is the only way you will be able to present a whole person to a new dating interest. Try “dating yourself” by going out to restaurants alone, seeing movies you like, and attending events you enjoy. You may even start to enjoy being single because you get to do things your former partner didn’t like. The more you focus on longing for your last relationship and regret how it ended, the worse your future will be. To move on, you must practice self-compassion. One study showed that those who practiced self-compassion directly after a divorce were coping much better nine months later than those who did not.  Practice being kind to yourself by having positive thoughts about how your relationship ended. You can say something like, "I'm not alone in this; I am not the only person to go through this. We had some good times, and I can take those with me, but it's best for the both of us if we move on." Focus on how it’s best to forgive the other person rather than blame yourself for how it ended, or playing the “what if” game (repeating alternate scenarios in your mind). No matter how it ended, choosing to learn from the mistakes both you and your former partner made will help you be more successful in the next relationship.  Common relationship errors include taking your partner for granted, not paying enough attention to her, gossiping about your partner to others, and constantly questioning the relationship.  Examine yourself closely for mistakes you made and determine not to repeat them. One way to help yourself forget the last relationship and focus on the present is to build a network of close friends. Even if they are friends you had before the relationship, these friends should be on your side and ready to help you find new love.  Friends can distract you from your pain by talking about other things, taking you on outings, and so on. Friends can encourage you when you are tempted to beat yourself up for how things went in the relationship.

What is a summary?
Recognize the importance of healing before moving on. Get closure. Acknowledge that you need physical recovery time. Acknowledge that you need mental recovery time. Avoid blaming yourself. Learn from the breakup. Surround yourself with friends.