In this festive time of year, it’s only natural to want to find someone to share it with. And if you’ve been single for a while, you might be anxious to finally find ‘the one’ that you will fall in love with.

But is it that easy?

When you are dating, you need to recognize that finding someone and falling in love with someone are not necessarily one and the same. While you might want to be with someone and do all of the right things to attract them, this does not guarantee that you will find the right person.

You need to begin to ask yourself if you are ready to dating at all. This question becomes all the more important when you haven’t dated in a while or when you’ve had a particularly bad breakup recently. If either of these are the case, you need to begin by working on yourself and your issues before you can let someone else in.

This means taking a few moments to consider your role in the demise of your previous relationship. What could you have done better or differently? In addition, you need to look at your exes to see what they have in common and what you want in a new partner that is the same or that is different.

You also need to realize that falling in love might be an instant thing, but a relationship is not. In order to make a real relationship work, you need to spend time nurturing it with communication and with a concentrated focus.

Not everyone is ready for love, but that doesn’t mean they will never be. It just might take a little longer.

Breaking Up, Relationships Attraction, Breaking Up, Exes, Holidays, Love, Relationship, Singles

Relationships that go badly are no fun for anyone involved, but add in the holiday season and you have a bit of a mess on your hands. While you want to break up with a person, is that really the best thing to do during the holiday season?

There are two schools of though on this: one, you could break up with them because when they realize that you were just holding out until after the holidays were over, it’s going to be doubly painful. Or two, you could break up with them when the time is right (okay, but not in the middle of a family dinner) and simply be known as the significant other who stole Christmas/Hanukah/Etc.

In the end, most professional therapist agree that sparing someone’s feelings for a holiday is not the right way to be in a relationship – breaking up is the right decision whenever it is the right decision, regardless of the holiday or the date.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it nicely.

Some things to avoid:

• Breaking up during a planned gathering at a family member’s home
• Telling anyone that you’ve going to break up with the person before you actually tell the person
• Breaking up with them in a public place, over email, or over the phone

You might not get out of this breakup with a good reputation, but at least you’re being honest – and that’s going to count for something. Eventually.

Breaking Up, Family Breaking Up, Family, Holidays, Relationships

Getting married is one of the happiest moments of many people’s lives. You make a promise to be with someone else for the rest of your life and you solemnly swear in front of a minister and your family that you intend to keep that promise. However, not every fairy tale wedding ends ‘happily ever after.’

More marriages than ever are ending up in divorce, which means that there are more single people dating that have been married before.

When you’ve been married before, you begin to have different needs. You want more from relationships than you might of in the past, or perhaps you want less. Thankfully, divorce isn’t greeted with the stigma that it was in the past, though it can still make you hesitant to date after divorce and find love in the future. And what’s more, there are plenty of dating services created especially for previously married singles.

This is why online dating is becoming the wave of the future in terms of divorced singles. You get the opportunity to let people know exactly what you want and don’t want from a partner, as well as the ability to meet other divorcees like yourself. You can also slowly get back into dating by simply browsing the dating site and waiting until the time feels right.

If you are newly divorced, it might be a good idea to wait a little while before trying to date. You might still be harboring some emotional issues that need to be dealt with before you bring someone special into your life. But if you’ve been divorced for a time and you feel that you can be a good partner in a new relationship, then why not try online dating?

Breaking Up, Divorce Divorce, Family, Married, Partner, Relationship