The Real Meaning Behind Post Break-Up Regret

Ending a relationship is one of the harder things to do in life. Whether you’ve been with someone for a couple of months or have been in a relationship for years – the decision to end it is always hard. Many would agree that even when you have a plethora of reasons for a break-up, there’s always that feeling of “what if we can still fix it” or “maybe I should give them another chance”. What’s worse, is that even once the breakup happens, many of us will experience not only heartbreak but also a fair bit of regret. We will contemplate getting back together. But why do we do that? Clearly, we’ve had a good reason to make the hard decision of breaking up, so why are we second-guessing ourselves? Here are a few possible reasons for your post break-up regret.

1. You’re experiencing relationship nostalgia

There’s a very good chance that the reason you’re having post break-up regret is nostalgia. You’re just idealizing your past relationship and remembering only the good things. Turns out that’s quite a natural response. Weirdly, this is how humanity goes on. If you are able to remember the good things, there’s a good chance you’ll get into another relationship. If all of us would only focus on remembering the bad stuff, we’d never want to date again, and that could lead to humans going extinct. However, if you’re experiencing this nostalgia, the best thing to do is just give yourself time to heal before attempting to get back with your ex or immediately throwing yourself into a new relationship.

2. You regret hurting them

If you were the one to initiate the break-up, you might feel a sense of regret simply because you know it must’ve hurt the other person. And even though you were the one to make that decision to end this relationship, and you’ve had good reasons for it, hurting someone is never a good feeling, so regret is natural. The best thing to do, however, is to just cut them out of your life, because if you hang around you’ll just be hurting them and yourself even more in the process.