Know how to move forward when you still have feelings for your ex.
By Hayley Small — Written on Feb 29, 2020
Are you still in love with your ex? Knowing how to get over an ex is one of the hardest things to deal with. You feel like there’s nothing you can do about how you feel about them. Going through all of your memories and the happy and good times makes it so much harder to feel like you can move past that relationship.
After you break up, if you still have feelings for your ex, you can’t force yourself to move on within a certain period of time. Everyone has their own grieving period after a breakup and you need to take the time necessary to get over someone properly. For some people, it might take two months for someone to be ready to start a new relationship — for others, it might take two years to move on. Either way, it is up to each individual person to know what's best for their own well-being. It isn’t our place to judge or question how long it takes someone to “get over it”.
Love is funny like that; it's going to take the nurturing that it needs and it's so hard to move on from.
The other thing is, exes don’t really make it easy to move on. Often times your ex boyfriend or ex girlfriend will reach out — especially if the relationship didn’t end on bad terms. They check in with you just to see how you’re doing. They watch all your Instagram and Snapchat stories and still follow you on everything. But you don’t want to unfollow first because secretly you like that they follow you and get updates on your life and see how happy you are and how much you’re thriving. But it’s still weird that they keep tabs on your life.
Exes always tend to have a weird power over you to some extent because you liked them enough to date them at some point and those feelings aren’t just going to completely disappear (even though sometimes you wish they would). If an ex presents an opportunity for you to be a part of their life again, it’s so hard to be strong and say no and remember why you broke up in the first place.
Some situations are exceptions too. Sometimes it wasn’t the right timing, or you needed time on your own to figure yourself out before you tried getting to know someone else in such a deep and intimate way. It’s hard to differentiate between the times where it was a good relationship and it’s just not your time vs. it was a toxic relationship and they were manipulative but you are still so attached that you have to tell yourself that it wasn’t good no matter how much they try to be a part of your life. You have to stay strong and say no.
So if you're having a hard time after your break up and you're wondering to yourself, "can you ever stop loving someone?", take a look at these powerful quotes about having feelings for an ex to help to decide what's best for you and your emotions, and help you move on when you're good and ready.
1. Know your limits.
“Relationships are like glass. Sometimes it’s better to leave them broken than to hurt yourself trying to put them back together.” — Unknown
2. Trust your love.
“If you really love something, set it free. If it comes back, it’s yours. If not, it wasn’t meant to be.” — Unknown
3. Love yourself first.
“Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.” – Robert Holden
4. Feel all your emotions.
“Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart do not know how to laugh either.” — Unknown
5. Doing hard things makes you stronger.
“Some people think that it’s holding on that makes one strong; sometimes it’s letting go.” — Unknown
6. A longing pair.
“I miss you more than the sun misses the sky at night.” – Taylor Swift
7. It's hard not to miss.
“I miss our talks, I miss our laughs, I miss us spending time together, but in the end, I only miss you.” — Unknown
8. Some things don't deter you enough to stop missing someone.
“I miss everything about you. I can’t believe I still want you. After all the things we’ve been through. I miss everything about you.” – Colbie Caillat
9. They just add that needed color to your life.
“Even the most colorful garden appears like a graveyard without you.” – Saravana Kumar Murugan
10. Times and people change.
“I won’t miss you. I will miss who I thought you were.” — Unknown
11. Nothing else seems to matter without them.
“Sometimes when a person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.” – Alphonse De Lamartine
12. Sometimes you miss the connection and not the person.
“I miss him in so many ways, but right now I miss him in the way you always miss someone when you’re single among a room full of couples.” – Emily Giffin
13. Gross comparison, but somehow accurate.
“I felt her absence. It was like waking up one day with no teeth in your mouth. You wouldn’t need to run to the mirror to know they were gone.” – James Dashner
14. Emotions have such a crazy impact.
“But I must admit, I miss you quite terribly. The world is too quiet without you nearby.” – Lemony Snicket
15. Exes will always leave an impact.
“Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color.” – W.S. Merwin
16. It's impossible not to think of them at some point.
“I keep myself busy with the things I do. But every time I pause, I still think of you.” — Unknown
17. The heart wants what the heart wants.
“My heart won’t let you go, and I need you to know, I miss you.” – Miley Cyrus
18. Can't miss something you never had.
“I’m still missing you. Well, I guess that I never really had you.” – Tegan Quin
19. People change and you can't always love them the way you did.
“I thought I still loved you but then I realized I just love the memories of who you used to be.” – Morgan Hanthorn
20. The relationship is more than the two people separately.
“I don’t miss you and you alone, I miss you and me together.” — Unknown
21. The thoughts are endless when it comes to love.
“If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden.” – Claudia Adrienne Grandi
22. It's a process.
“Just because you miss someone, doesn’t mean you need them back in your life. Missing is just part of moving on.” — Unknown
23. Something you can't get back.
“It hurts when one day you wake up and you know you’re missing someone from your past, but they are not there for you anymore.” – Norma Marthalia
24. Time doesn't matter.
“It’s crazy how you can go months or years without talking to someone, but they still cross your mind every day.” – Anurag Prakash Ray
25. Learn from your experience.
“Sometimes a woman will look back on what she had, not because she wants to go there but to motivate her to do better.” – Reuben ‘Mulah Truth’ Holmes II
26. Feelings are unmeasurable.
“They say when you are missing someone that they are probably feeling the same, but I don’t think it’s possible for you to miss me as much as I’m miss you right now.” – Edna St. Vincent Millay
27. It's hard not to miss them.
“When I see your smile, and I know it’s not for me, that’s when I’ll miss you.” — Unknown
28. Distance makes the heart grow fonder.
“My heart never knew loneliness until you went away. I’m missing you.” — Unknown
29. Nothing is the same without your loved one there.
“When I go away from you, the world beats dead like a slackened drum.” – Amy Lowell
30. Not worth it.
“What is the opposite of two? A lonely me and a lonely you.” – Richard Wilbur
31. You can't tell yourself that your emotions are illogical.
“You shouldn’t miss someone who doesn’t miss you right?” – Alex Finn
32. Love everything that you have in the moment.
“Some people don’t realize what they have until it’s gone.” — Unknown
33. True colors come out.
“You learn more about someone at the end of a relationship than at the beginning.” — Unknown
34. Dreams come and go.
“Breaking up is just like having the worst nightmare after having the best dream.” — Unknown
35. Focus on the future.
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” — Unknown
36. Live your life.
“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep rereading your last one.” — Unknown
37. Find joy in the little things.
“Sunsets remind me that life is still beautiful without him” — Unknown
38. Realize the truth and the necessary steps to take in life.
“Letting go isn’t giving up – it’s accepting the fact that some things just aren’t meant to be.” — Unknown
39. You always want what you can't have.
“Love that we cannot have is the one that lasts the longest, hurts the deepest and feels the strongest.” — Unknown
40. Overwhelming emotions.
“Missing you comes in waves…Right now I’m drowning.” — Unknown
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Hayley Small is a writer who focuses on pop culture, religion and relationship topics.