Comments on: What to do with a broken heart when you just can’t take it anymore

By: L.

L. — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 01:29:54 +0000

Thank you so much for this. Walked and walked tonight and then sat by the harbor and watched the boats for a long time. To everything there is a season: a time to be mindful and a time to distract. Thank you again.

By: susan

susan — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 01:17:57 +0000

So glad it’s helpful, Jeannie!

By: jeannie

jeannie — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 01:06:03 +0000

I have been searching everywhere for a list like this. Thank you so much. Honestly, this is the most helpful list I have found on how to distract yourself after a heartbreak.

By: shula

shula — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:07:49 +0000

As someone who’s been sitting with it for a few months, I can vouch for the value of these kind of suggestions. My own special thing during the summer (until last week) has been lying in the sun in the back yard — strange only because I’ve never been a lying-in-the-sun person, and because the urge to do so came on with a mystifying kind of urgency, as the ONLY thing that I felt some actual desire to do. I baked, I sank into some kind of lizard-brain state, I got lots of vitamin D. The cat sat nearby as my guardian angel and occasionally came over to lick my lead, like Aslan. Something changed for me, although I still don’t know what it was.

By: susan

susan — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:45:10 +0000

Excellent suggestions, Michelle! “Gone With the Wind”–of course.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:43:02 +0000

As someone who is currently “sitting in it” rather than the usual repress and deny, it is so helpful to hear various forms of coping when the whole feeling it gets a bit old. Sasha and Bill bring up good points of dealing with it, but that gets overwhelming and on the days where I just miss me, I rely on my distractions.

To add to the distraction list:
A Knight’s Tale
Anything by or with Kevin Smith
Tommy Boy–it doesn’t hurt here or here so much, but riiiiight here…
Remington Steele (proud owner of all five seasons)

And once the indulence needs to come into play I look to:
Shawshank Redemption
Regarding Henry
Gone with the Wind
Peanut M&M’s

And then I repeat a line from a Jennifer Aniston movie to myself…”Chin up young person.”

By: Lissa Boles

Lissa Boles — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:54:29 +0000

Here’s a weird one, but hey, whatever works…

I spent one weekend listening – over and over again – to every single edition of Blue Collar Comedy I could get my frantic little hands on.

I was never a fan but on the drive home from work one Friday a snippet on the radio made me laugh so hard I cried a totally different kind of long forgotten tears.

Somewhere inside a voice said, ‘MORE! NOW!’ So I obeyed.

It was so cathartic (observations of the ridiculous, maybe?) that a couple of days later I noticed it didn’t feel like an elephant was sitting on my chest anymore.

And I can vouch for the chocolate remedy, though my girl was Godiva.

By: susan

susan — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:55:42 +0000

Maggie. I just did. And my heart isn’t even broken. (Right now.)

By: maggie

maggie — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:33:05 +0000

awesome. i think i’m going to pop in 40 Yr. Old Virgin and throw away clothes.

By: susan

susan — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:17:39 +0000

Excellent advice!!!! But to be sure, I have to test it for myself…