Mourning the break up

Picture it
You and your significant other have been together for a couple of months. It’s Thursday and it’s suddenly over.Your heart is broken, Mr. and Mrs. Wonderful are no more and all that remains is a shell of an old relationship and a feeling that you’ll never love again.
Cut to Friday night
You’re walking around the world with your head low and your heart sunk, swearing to anyone who’ll listen that you’ll “never date again” when suddenly, the heavens part and you see the most amazing, attractive, perfect person for you.
And you wonder if it’s OK for you to start dating someone new, even if you just got out of a relationship?
What is the appropriate waiting period between relationships? And when we avoid the waiting period in pursuit of a new relationship, what does this say about the one we were just in?While most people feel that one must take a break between relationships, there is no real time table out there for how long it takes a person to get over one.
Some people feel that a couple of weeks are a sufficient amount of time to wait between relationships, while others claim the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.
Personally, I find the latter rather hard to do as these rebound relationships have a tendency of causing more harm than good – unless, of course, when both parties know that said relationship is a rebound.
Otherwise, all a rebound relationship does is hurt the feelings of someone who thought your two-week tryst was the start of something more.
According to the popular TV show “Sex and the City,” the average mourning period for any serious relationship should be half the time that one was in the relationship.
That’s fine for people who date for a month or two, but what if you date someone for three years? Do you wait a year and a half before moving on?
And what if the relationship has been decaying for months with no hope in sight, but you stuck it out hoping for the better? Does the grace period lessen? In many of these cases, a member of the failing couple has already begun scanning the horizon for something better.
“If I wasn’t dating X, I would totally date Y. He or she is amazing; we have so much in common and we talk all the time.”
In these cases, is an extended mourning period really necessary? Or should you simply move on and see what this could lead into?
So how long does a person really need to wait after breaking up to start a new relationship?
Well, sorry folks, but the best answer I could find in my research was “it all depends.”
If you feel like your heart can mend after a few days, then go for it.
On the other hand, if you’re not ready to jump into the pool of dating, then wait it out. The well of bad blind dates and cheap Chinese food won’t be going dry anytime soon so if need be, embrace singledom for as long as necessary.