It has been a very interesting day. I was asked to give break up advice on two different instances. What is interesting about break ups is that no one break up is the same. There is a different reason, different circumstance, and two very different people. In all honesty, I'm not in the relationship so I cannot give advice as a person who understand both sides. What I can say for break ups is that the recovery from them is different from person to person.
My personal way of handling hard times such as this is to listen to really bad love songs, lying down on my couch, and drinking a bottle of wine alone. For whatever reason, that's how I cope. You need to let out the tears and the emotion to really let go of what had happened. Its all about going through motions. The most important thing I find is to get back to yourself. Before a relationship, you're a different person. You know who you are and are hopefully enjoying life through your own eyes. When you're in a relationship, things change. There's another person that you share things with and you share yourself with. It's very easy to get lost in who you are and who you think you're supposed to be. Finding yourself within in a relationship is one thing I felt that has been really important. If you want to end up with someone in the long run, you have to know and understand who you are in a relationship for the relationship to be successful but that's not what this post is about.
At the end of the day, all break ups are different. No, you're not supposed to sleep with someone to get over it or drink yourself to oblivion. You're supposed to feel the pain, understand who you are after the break up, and be the person you want to be after the fact. Other than that, the rest is fluff. To try to understand why the other person broke it off might drive you insane. You have to remember, there are always three sides to a story. Your side, their side, and the truth. No story is the same. Stop listening to all of your friend's advice and listen to you heart. Isn't your heart the one you have to live with in the first place?