Rewrite
Don’t like each other enough to make it through a conversation without a fight, but can’t face the prospect of a man on Hinge asking to guess your cup size? Enter: ‘the break’. Elusive as it may be, the break has gained a bad reputation for how inconsistently it’s defined – the truth is, it means something different to every couple.
There’s an element of taboo around the break. Occupying the grey area between singleness and monogamy, it’s often wrongly interpreted as an open invitation to speculate whether a relationship is failing, and why. This week, People published an exclusive reporting that Barry Keoghan and Sabrina Carpenter have “decided to take a break” to navigate their careers. Naturally, the internet has been flooded with rumours of infidelity. While there’s currently no evidence to support these claims, the frenzy itself highlights the stigma attached to breaks.
The problem isn’t the concept itself – it’s how breaks are defined, or more accurately, misdefined. Pop culture frequently portrays them as a prelude to disaster rather than a chance to reset. If you’re considering a break, understanding its potential can be the difference between constructive growth and chaos. Here’s how to actually make it work.
Part of the break’s bad rep comes from the way we’ve seen it misunderstood in pop culture. Remember Ross and Rachel? They never had a conversation about whether they could sleep with other people, but this doesn’t have to be you. “Taking a break from a relationship can be valuable for couples if they do it with shared mutual intentions,” says Meg Collins, NeuroArts therapist and consultant. “Couples should ask themselves: What’s the purpose of the break, and what do we hope to achieve? How long will the break be? Will we communicate during the time apart? Are we both committed to coming back? Will we date other people?” Ask the hard questions and save each other a hard time.
Unless you’re taking the break with the intention of making the relationship stronger, you may as well cut your losses and break up now – at least that’s what Dr Wendy Walsh, Relationship Expert at DatingAdvice and psychology professor with a PhD in Clinical Psychology, believes. Walsh often sees couples take breaks under the guise of “if I find something better, we’ll break up – if I can’t find anything better I’ll come back to you”. Walsh urges couples to be realistic about what can be achieved with a break, “avoiding the relationship by taking a break doesn’t make either partner any more skilled at handling the issues that existed in the relationship before”. Be honest with yourself.
By fostering a deeper connection with ourselves, we can show up more as our true selves in our relationships
Taking a break is not about pressing pause while secretly keeping score and tabs on one another; it’s about mutual respect and reflection. If you’re going to spend the whole time obsessing over the other person, the break serves no purpose. Pull back your energy, and put it into yourself.
If you want to get the full potential out of this time apart, you have to look at the issues in your relationship head-on, without self-judgement. If you use the time to better understand yourself, you can begin to take responsibility and connect with yourself, and others, on a deeper level. “Get curious about what’s blocking connection,” says psychotherapist James Lloyd. “Ask what might be going on beneath the surface when disconnection happens.”
Connection is one of the most important factors in relationship fulfilment levels, and Lloyd urges couples on a break to explore and better understand the aspects within themselves which can block feeling connected. According to Lloyd, this can be done through focusing on the protective, critical, and wounded parts of ourselves which can cause us to act defensively, and work out where they come from with compassion. “By fostering a deeper connection with ourselves, we can show up more as our true selves in our relationships,” says Lloyd.
If you’re choosing to take a break and not break up, it can feel easy to make the reunion the sole focus of the break. Work on yourself. Either you’ll gain the confidence to end things for good, or you’ll return to the relationship stronger than before. Win-win.
in HTML format, including tags, to make it appealing and easy to read for Japanese-speaking readers aged 20 to 40 interested in fashion. Organize the content with appropriate headings and subheadings (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6), translating all text, including headings, into Japanese. Retain any existing
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Don’t like each other enough to make it through a conversation without a fight, but can’t face the prospect of a man on Hinge asking to guess your cup size? Enter: ‘the break’. Elusive as it may be, the break has gained a bad reputation for how inconsistently it’s defined – the truth is, it means something different to every couple.
There’s an element of taboo around the break. Occupying the grey area between singleness and monogamy, it’s often wrongly interpreted as an open invitation to speculate whether a relationship is failing, and why. This week, People published an exclusive reporting that Barry Keoghan and Sabrina Carpenter have “decided to take a break” to navigate their careers. Naturally, the internet has been flooded with rumours of infidelity. While there’s currently no evidence to support these claims, the frenzy itself highlights the stigma attached to breaks.
The problem isn’t the concept itself – it’s how breaks are defined, or more accurately, misdefined. Pop culture frequently portrays them as a prelude to disaster rather than a chance to reset. If you’re considering a break, understanding its potential can be the difference between constructive growth and chaos. Here’s how to actually make it work.
Part of the break’s bad rep comes from the way we’ve seen it misunderstood in pop culture. Remember Ross and Rachel? They never had a conversation about whether they could sleep with other people, but this doesn’t have to be you. “Taking a break from a relationship can be valuable for couples if they do it with shared mutual intentions,” says Meg Collins, NeuroArts therapist and consultant. “Couples should ask themselves: What’s the purpose of the break, and what do we hope to achieve? How long will the break be? Will we communicate during the time apart? Are we both committed to coming back? Will we date other people?” Ask the hard questions and save each other a hard time.
Unless you’re taking the break with the intention of making the relationship stronger, you may as well cut your losses and break up now – at least that’s what Dr Wendy Walsh, Relationship Expert at DatingAdvice and psychology professor with a PhD in Clinical Psychology, believes. Walsh often sees couples take breaks under the guise of “if I find something better, we’ll break up – if I can’t find anything better I’ll come back to you”. Walsh urges couples to be realistic about what can be achieved with a break, “avoiding the relationship by taking a break doesn’t make either partner any more skilled at handling the issues that existed in the relationship before”. Be honest with yourself.
By fostering a deeper connection with ourselves, we can show up more as our true selves in our relationships
Taking a break is not about pressing pause while secretly keeping score and tabs on one another; it’s about mutual respect and reflection. If you’re going to spend the whole time obsessing over the other person, the break serves no purpose. Pull back your energy, and put it into yourself.
If you want to get the full potential out of this time apart, you have to look at the issues in your relationship head-on, without self-judgement. If you use the time to better understand yourself, you can begin to take responsibility and connect with yourself, and others, on a deeper level. “Get curious about what’s blocking connection,” says psychotherapist James Lloyd. “Ask what might be going on beneath the surface when disconnection happens.”
Connection is one of the most important factors in relationship fulfilment levels, and Lloyd urges couples on a break to explore and better understand the aspects within themselves which can block feeling connected. According to Lloyd, this can be done through focusing on the protective, critical, and wounded parts of ourselves which can cause us to act defensively, and work out where they come from with compassion. “By fostering a deeper connection with ourselves, we can show up more as our true selves in our relationships,” says Lloyd.
If you’re choosing to take a break and not break up, it can feel easy to make the reunion the sole focus of the break. Work on yourself. Either you’ll gain the confidence to end things for good, or you’ll return to the relationship stronger than before. Win-win.
and integrate them seamlessly into the new content without adding new tags. Ensure the new content is fashion-related, written entirely in Japanese, and approximately 1500 words. Conclude with a “結論” section and a well-formatted “よくある質問” section. Avoid including an introduction or a note explaining the process.
