Moving On: Learning To Trust Again After A Bad Relationship

If you’ve experienced betrayal in a previous relationship, learning to trust again can be a process. For many, the natural reaction is to protect their heart from experiencing pain again.

Sure, guarding your heart would protect you from people who could harm you. However, you could also push away people who could love you. There has to be a healthy balance of protection and vulnerability.

Healthy relationships require a great degree of trust. If you want to increase your chances of success in your next relationship, work on your challenges with trust while you’re single. If you’ve experienced betrayal from a past relationship, I’ve listed 4 steps to help you learn to trust again.

Forgive yourself – In order to trust your decision making, you’ll need to forgive yourself for making bad decisions in the past. Maybe you chose a bad partner. Perhaps you ignored the signs.

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You’re human. Remember that. You’ve learned fromyour experiences and are prepared to make better decisions. You can trust yourself again.

Control what you can control – Trust is vulnerability. Learning to trust means accepting you can’t control the outcome. There is no guarantee you won’t be betrayed again. There is no guarantee you won’t experience pain. You have to be ok with that reality.

Be confident in your bounceback – You might’ve thought life was over after your last heartbreak but it wasn’t. You were hurt for days, weeks, months, maybe even years but you’re still here.

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Life isn’t over. You bounced back. You always will. When you really believe this, you’re not afraid to be vulnerable. You know you’ll bounce back either way.

Take your time – This time around, make better decisions. Ask more questions. See the signs. Take them serious. Choose a partner that makes trusting them easy. Don’t lower your standards.

Instead, hold yourself and anyone you date accountable to those standards. Decrease the disappointments by choosing better partners.