This is how you forgive the person who broke your heart.

You forgive them by giving yourself time to heal. This doesn’t happen all at once or overnight. It’s a slow progression. You take two steps forward and some steps back. Sometimes it won’t make sense. But you grow a bit stronger, more resilient, every single day. Even if you don’t always see it. You take the time to heal at the root – to understand painful events in your life that creates the bitterness and issues you are dealing with in the present. You find ways to understand and address your emotional unmet needs. You renounce the lies you’ve believed about yourself and replace them with the truth.

You forgive them by focusing on yourself. You stop pouring your energy into toxicity. You unplug. You unfollow. Practice self-care. You reread your favorite books. You go out with your best friends, laugh, and remember how good things can be when you surround yourself with positivity. You tell your broken heart it’s okay to take a break – to remember how to smile again.

You forgive them by removing yourself from the situation. The longer you dwell in it, in the heartache, the more it festers. It’s difficult, but you have to leave it alone. Honor your emotions. Honor your feelings. But don’t keep circling back and obsessing over what occurred. Imagine it like a balloon. Let it float away. Tell it goodbye. It can’t hurt you now.

You forgive them by accepting what they did. That doesn’t mean you think it’s okay or you’ve let them off the hook. It doesn’t mean the pain is erased and they aren’t responsible for their actions. It means accepting what’s done is done and admitting there is no rewind button. You can only move forward.

You forgive them by regaining your life. Because there is so much more than just one person who broke your heart.