Denial

When you first hear the news you may feel numb or shocked. This is because you do not yet understand what has happened to you and your life around you. You mind is unable to process this information correctly. One minute the two of you are a hot item, the next minute your friends or nothing at all. Its pretty hard to process and pretty hard to stomach on matter which angle you look at it.

The disbelief stage can last anywhere from half a minute to a whole lifetime. Some individuals simply refuse to believe what has happened knowing that if they accept the situation they fear that they may never recover. Don't let this mistake happen to you. Your objective and ultimate goal is to accept your fate and move on to other endeavors. Being dumped is not the end of the world, so try to think through your irrational first instincts and what has happened as quickly as possible so you can begin the healing process.

Anger

As long as you don't beat your insignificant other to a pulp, burn down their house, or slash your past companion's tires, expressing you anger is a healthy outlet for all those negative emotions welling up inside of you. If you want to tell you ex how you feel, go ahead and do it because you really have nothing to lose. If you feel jaded, speak your mind and let them deal with the fallout.

Another way of dealing with your anger is to maybe write a poem or even draw a picture expressing your anguish. Feel free to write a long letter to your ex, being sure to hurtfully pick apart all of their insecurities, and then burn or destroy it. Basically, do everything necessary to keep yourself from acting on any immature, inappropriate impulses towards aggression. Losing control over you actions may feel wonderful for a couple of seconds, but it will only make you feel worse afterwards.

Guilt

The guilt stage should rear its ugly head right around the time you are done venting your frustrations. Most individuals seem to turn their anger inward during this phase. You may even blame yourself for the ruined relationship. Spend some time in this stage, but do not linger in it for too long. See it for what it is and move on to the next stage. People who indulge themselves and spend countless days reliving the rejection can drive themselves insane.

In order to progress through this stage, you must remember that nothing you could have done by yourself could have contributed to the demise of the relationship. Unless you cheated on you partner, it 'takes two to tango'. So if you decide to turn on yourself for some minor infraction like flirting too much, think twice about putting too much credence into these ideas. It's more likely incompatibility issues that caused the problem and you need to start getting on with your life.

Grief

If you start crying for no apparent reason or go through severe mood swings, then you're probably entering the grief stage of the recovery process. No matter how shocked you were about the breakup or how badly you were mistreated, you will have pains of loneliness for some months to come. There is a saying that it takes three months to recover from every six months you were together, but the time varies for every individual.

Just remember that your attitude can have a tremendous impact on how long it takes for you to get back in the swing of the dating life. You can always mope around the house in your sweats feeling sorry for yourself or you can get out there and force yourself to enjoy your life and the opportunities you still have in front of you. While a certain amount of grief is expected, it is ultimately your responsibility to decide how long it will last.