10 Comforting Ways To Help A Friend Through A Breakup

A separation, especially one where the relationship had been intense, often breaks a person into pieces. If you are looking for some tips on how to help a friend through breakup, we’ve got you covered.

A person going through a breakup will have a hard time processing their feelings and experience a flurry of emotions—disappointment, anger, agony, frustration, etc. They may also feel a deep void in their life. Thus, if you have a friend going through such a phase, the tips given here might help you be their support system and stick with them in the healing path.

 How To Help A Friend Through A Breakup: 10 Comforting Ways

 1. Lend an ear

Before you can think about how to comfort a friend after a breakup, you must first lend a supportive ear. When a friend is experiencing a tangled ball of emotions post-breakup, your friend needs a sounding board. It means a lot when you console someone who’s in despair because it acts as a healing balm. It makes them feel better while you soak it all in. Allow them to express their grief while maintaining eye contact to show that you are paying attention to what they say.

2. Don’t be judgmental

While lending a sympathetic ear is important, it is equally crucial not to judge your friend’s situation or speak negatively about their ex. True friends provide support without judgment and know exactly what to say. If a mutual friend is around, avoid calling your friend names or ranting about your friend’s ex because your friend hasn’t fully processed the breakup. Further, resist the urge to offer unsolicited advice because your friend is probably reconciling to the absence of their romantic partner, and memories of their ex could be haunting them.

3. Offer solutions

Rather than offering unsolicited advice, wait until they’ve expressed their feelings before helping them with solutions. If you assist your friend in coming up with ideas and weighing the pros and cons of each, they are more likely to come up with a solution they are comfortable with. Or they may feel better simply because they were able to speak and be heard. Use positive affirmations like ‘you existed before your ex, and you will exist after them’, to console your friend. Tell your friend that their relationship was just a part of their life, but it was not their entire existence.

4. Tell them you’re a text or call away

When something as devastating as a breakup occurs in your friend’s life, you may not know how to reach out to offer your support. One way on how to help a friend through a breakup is by keeping in touch with your friend. Contact can be as simple as a phone call or a text message, though meeting in person is preferable if your friend is comfortable with it. Texts like ‘Text me when you get home. Tell me you’re alright. I’m always available to you. Let’s keep talking’ can go a long way toward showing your friend that you care.

5. Take them out

While staying in touch with your friend is important, spending quality time with them is one of the most effective ways of comforting your friend after a breakup. As a supportive friend, it helps to take your friend out to fight their breakup blues, even if only for a few hours. For example, you can entertain your friend by taking them to a fine dining restaurant, a walk in the park, or a movie. When you’re out with a friend, try not to bring up their breakup or ex because it takes away all of your effort and the fun of going out.

6. Help them pursue their hobbies

Helping a friend through a breakup necessitates more than just spending quality time with them. Encouraging your friend to pursue their hobbies is one of the best ways to cheer up a friend after a breakup. You could bring them along to nurture each other’s hobbies. Invite your friend to join you if you’ve signed up for a cooking or an art class. You can take them to wine tasting, flower arranging classes, theatre groups, or joining a book club or laughing club. This allows your friend to meet new people and opens up a plethora of new conversations.

7. Sign up your friend for gym sessions

If your friend needs to pursue hobbies and reinvent themselves, they must first have a healthy body and mind. Signing up for fitness or yoga classes is one way to help your friend get over a breakup because exercise and quality time with your friend are the most helpful coping skills for getting over a breakup. You both get a chance to improve your physical health, while your friend gets to meet other gym members and strike up interesting conversations about how long they’ve been going to the gym, what other workouts they like, or where they got their cute workout pants.

8. Make a meal or order food

While enrolling your friend in a gym is important, don’t let your friend’s breakup impact their health. Any breakup can be emotionally and physically draining. However, food can make anyone feel loved and cared for. So, promote self-care practices such as healthy eating. For example, you could host a sleepover and prepare a delectable meal that includes a nutritious salad or a sumptuous sandwich. While you and your friend savor the food, spend some time together on Netflix watching movies like ’Legally Blonde’ or ’Eat Pray Love’ to get some post-breakup inspiration.

9. Organize a no-booze theme party

You can cheer up a friend after a breakup by organizing a house party on the rooftop with a breathtaking view of the city. Invite your friends, make sure there’s plenty of food, and play some upbeat music to get the party started. You can put on a lovely dance show to hip-hop beats and rhythmic songs. Avoid alcoholic beverages, no matter how tempting they may be. Instead, serve mocktails, mozzarella sticks, corn cakes, pizza, desserts, or anything else your group of friends enjoys. During the party, you can tell your friend, ‘Don’t feel bad, there is plenty of fish in the sea.’

10. Suggest professional help

If all of your efforts to engage your friend in adopting healthy self-care practices fail, you can recommend that they seek professional help. Post-breakup, people frequently experience depression, anger, and guilt, which can impact their productivity at work and also their relationships. While these simple steps may temporarily distract your friend or dull the pain, they may not address deeper psychological issues such as feelings of emptiness and lingering hurt. Only a professional will be able to address deeper issues and assist your friend in bouncing back.

Breakups are not easy to go through because heartbreak can cause people to withdraw into their shells, but a true friend can share your sorrow with you to make the process a little easier. It is therefore essential to handle such a situation sensitively and with empathy. By following these simple steps, you can help a friend get over a breakup.

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