Do you miss your ex?  Are you having trouble moving on?  Here are seven strategies to pursue when you miss your ex.

1.    Decide that it is over.  As long as you think there is a chance to get back together, you will continue to experience feelings of missing your ex girlfriend or boyfriend.  If you practice strategies like texting or phoning them trying to catch them off guard, you will continue to keep the feelings alive.  When you miss your ex, try one of the other strategies presented here.

2.    Get rid of all of their stuff.  Do an exchange where you give them their stuff and they give you yours.  Don’t hold on to physical items for sentimental reasons, it will just remind you of how much you miss your ex.  If there are small things that you don’t give back (such as a tooth brush or a comb) throw them away.  You don’t need the constant reminders.

3.    Write them a letter – then burn it.  One reason why you continue to miss your ex is because you haven’t gotten them out of your system.  So, write a letter pouring out all of your feelings about the relationship and the break up.  When you have released your emotions, then get rid of the letter.  There is something emotionally satisfying about watching your words go up in smoke.

4.    Reconnect with your friends.  Sometimes when you get in a hot and heavy relationship, your ties to friends and even family wither.  If this is the case, reconnect with your friends.  Redevelop relationships that you have let simmer.  Your friends and family love you even if your ex doesn’t anymore.

5.    Make new friends.  One of the reasons you miss your ex is because he or she took up so much of your time.  Now, in addition to the intense emotional void you are feeling, you have time on your hands.  Fill that time with new activities or interests.  Take a class at the local university’s extension program.  Learn to do the tango.  Join a co-ed softball team.  Volunteer to clean up the park through an environmental program.  When you keep busy, you will find that closing the time void also helps you close the emotional void.

6.    Get a pet.  A dog, cat, or other pet can help you reconnect to what is real.  A pet needs your attention and love.  A pet can also give you love.  When you miss your ex, you can reach out for a pet who loves you.

7.    Start dating other people.  The world moves on.  There are lots of other fish in the sea.  Once you reconnect with your friends, start new activities, and even start to walk the dog, you will begin to see all of the opportunities you have with the opposite sex.  Don’t worry that a first date has to lead to a complicated relationship when you are not ready for one.  Just go out and enjoy yourself.  Soon, you will stop feeling that you miss your ex so much.

Follow these seven steps and you will soon find that you are not saying you miss your ex at all!

Here is a question that people have all the time.  Is writing letters to get your ex back really a good idea? There are many people that write letters, text messages, e-mails and just about every other form of text-based correspondence that you can think of on a daily basis.  Many of these people will resort to that form of communication when trying to get an ex-lover to fall in love with them again.

In order to truly comment on how effective this method is, we need to examine both the good points and the bad points about it.  The good to writing letters is that they will allow you to express feelings that you might not otherwise be able to express.  There are plenty of people that can say more in text than they’d ever be able to say verbally.  So if letters are helping you with the communication process, they can definitely be a good thing.

On the other hand, letters are also quite impersonal.  People that are broken up with over the phone, over an instant messaging program, through mail or even by text-message are people that tend to really hold grudges.  The most honest way to break up with someone is in person, although many people just don’t have the gumption to do it this way.  Just as this is true with breakups, so too is it true with everything else related to relationships.  If you want to get your ex back, the letter might not be the best way to communicate that information.

This is actually even more evident if you go back and look at the previous good point about writing letters.  Even though they can help you communicate things that you find hard to communicate verbally, your ex probably already knows that.  Therefore, learning to communicate those things verbally shows that you can change for the better for your ex and that is something that is more likely to make them come back to you than a written letter.

Generally speaking though, all of this might be a bit of an academic debate.  The reason for that is that many times the direct approach is not the best one when it comes to getting your ex back.  Writing letters to get your ex back by definition involves the direct approach.  If your goal with the letter is to start up the relationship again, you can do nothing but take the direct approach.  The closer to the breakup you write the letter, the less likelihood there is of the direct approach being able to work.

Most people would advise that you go with the indirect approach.  Let your relationship with your ex grow back into friendship after the breakup and then take the opportunity to reignite the relationship when it comes along.  That is far more indirect than direct in nature and naturally does not involve the writing of any letters.  This means that at best, there is debate going back and forth about how beneficial letter writing actually is.

This is the question my husband’s brother asked me the other day. Why did you break up was my response when really what I wanted to ask was how could you be such a donut to dump her?

He looked a bit sheepish and told me that he had met this girl at work and she smiled at him. Seemingly she is young, very pretty and looks rather like she belongs in Baywatch. So he, being a he-man type, decided that he had to dump his lovely girlfriend to date this beach babe. Needless to say, he soon found out that she had been smiling at his mate and looked on him like he was something on her shoe.

Well he deserved that but I believe he had ditched his girlfriend for a less obvious reason. He loves her and was scared of making a commitment to her. He had started thinking about settling down and having kids and nobody had made him feel this way before. But he was worried that being a career girl, this was not the future she had planned.

Unfortunately he is not very good at expressing his feelings so decided that it was better to finish the relationship rather than try to find out if his partner shared his vision of the future. Doh!

Honestly, how can someone so intelligent on a professional level be so emotionally backward. Anyhow his ex partner is a lovely lady who, God love her, adores him so I knew that getting back with his ex girlfriend was possible. It was also a great idea as despite his obvious faults, they make a great couple and he does love her.

So I told him to write her a letter. He decided an email would do but I insisted it had to be a letter. A hand written letter is such an old fashioned way of courting someone that it almost always guarantees a positive response. So off he went to buy some paper and a pen and as I thought complete the task at hand.

And then he was back. “But what do I write?”  He asked. Seriously he would have let me write the whole thing for him. So I told him to tell her how he felt. An MBA from Harvard and he is looking at me like I advised him to pull out his finger nails. I said “Tell her you love her and that you are very sorry for the way you behaved and that you would like to take her out this Friday to her favorite restaurant”.

Believe me that this approach works much better than a text, a bunch of roses and a takeaway. Thankfully his partner knows him well and saw the funny side, and my brother in law is no longer asking “how to get back together with my ex-girlfriend“.

His new question is what to say to his future father in law when he pops the question but I will leave my hubby to deal with that one!

Do you care?  Asking yourself the question does my ex want to get back with me is the wrong way forward.  The real question is do you want your ex back?  If the answer to that is yes, then you can start worrying about what your previous partner wants.

A lot of people never understand why their relationship ended.  I find it amazing that many people going through a divorce are unable to explain why they are ending their marriage, especially when there are children involved.

It takes two to break up a relationship despite the fact that it is very easy to blame the other person. Even when someone else has an affair, it isn’t always 100% their fault. Don’t get me wrong, I am not condoning anyone being unfaithful but sometimes people are pushed into things.  If you take your man or woman for granted and forget to pay them any attention, they may end up looking somewhere else.  Some people will have affairs just because they can get away with it.  These people do not belong in a monogamous relationship.  But sometimes, a relationship is worth saving and the affair, whilst hurtful, can eventually strengthen the bonds between the couple.

Examining why a couple broke up will help both parties understand the issues in their relationship.  It will highlight those areas that require work.  All partnerships involve work and commitment.  Men and women often appear to live on different planets never mind speak other languages.  My husband once said to my Dad that he didn’t understand me.  My dads’ reply: that is where you are going wrong son you Never try to understand a woman!

Whilst it is the sexual attraction that initially attracts men and women, it is their compatibility that will keep them together long after the sexual flame resembles a candle as opposed to a flame thrower.  So before you start wondering how your ex partner is feeling, you need to be certain of your own wants and desires. Are you sure that this person is right for you?  Do you see yourself spending the rest of your life with them?  Do you want the same things out of life i.e. kids, traveling, similar standard of living etc?   Do you share the same ideals and views about how to live your life?

It is very important to first establish if you would like to try again.   Knowing what you want will help you to work out what your ex wants.   Despite what Hollywood and other entertainment providers would have you believe, men want stable happy relationships just as much as women.   Generally the male is not as good as vocalizing what he wants and can finish a relationship rather than have to deal with a bad patch.

So instead of wasting time trying to answer does my ex want to get back with me, why not invite him round for coffee and see what happens.

People are in a tough spot with their loved one and are trying to rekindle love in the relationship in order to prevent the relationship from falling apart can likely benefit from some things I’ve learned from women who have dumped me.

This is because I have “been there, done that” when it comes to relationships, and I have learned a lot about how to keep a relationship going, or even more importantly in some situations, how to know when the relationship really is coming to an end.

Here are some things I’ve learned from women who have dumped me, and how you can use them to your advantage to win back love.

1 – One of the biggest things I’ve learned from women who have dumped me is that sometimes women break up relationships with every intention of rekindling things later, but they break the relationship up to create some much needed space for a period of time.

In other words, just because she broke up with you, that does not mean that it’s all over. Just give her some time and some space and everything will probably be alright again in no time.

2 – Another one of the things I’ve learned from women who have dumped me is that often women will break up a relationship simply because they think you are going to break up with them, and are trying to beat you to the punch. You can counteract this by being honest about your feelings and intentions to calm down her need to end things first.

It is normal for people to want to have the last word in an argument, and being the one initiating the break up is an example of this. Let her know that you don’t want to break things up and you may just be able to keep the relationship from falling apart.

3 – One of the final things I’ve learned from women who have dumped me me that you should keep in mind is that if you work hard enough to rekindle things, you can make a relationship work. A breakup does not have to mean that the relationship is over forever, it simply means that the relationship needs some time and that both parties require some time apart. You do not have to give up on the relationship or the love behind it just because a hiatus is needed.

Stay strong if you find yourself having relationship problems, and know that every break up comes with life lessons that you can take with you in order to help you with future relationship problems, regardless of what life throws at you.