Oh man, the heartbreak of having your heart broken. I'm not in any position to be giving out advice. I often deal with heartbreak in really juvenile, uninspired ways. The first time I had my heart broken, I was sad for a year. How did I deal with it? I did a lot of walking around and listening to the same album on repeat (at the time it was the Flaming Lips album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,") and watching really mindless television that I didn't even enjoy but somehow soothed me. There was an episode of SATC where Carrie breaks a flower vase and then in the next episode she's all angry and hellbent on trying to have a great day. It's really embarrassing to admit, but watching it always calmed me and made it easier to make it through the day without bursting into tears. I also (for the first time in my life!) really relied on my friends. I talked to them about my irrational desire to go to my ex boyfriend and valiantly try to 'win him over.' They took me out to get ice cream and late night burgers and played Scrabble with me and I went out dancing and went to show in San Francisco. Most of the time, only half of me was really existing in whatever moment I existed in and the other half was thinking about how sad I was and how I might never not be sad again. But then time passes and it helps to fall in love again and it even helps to fall in like again because it just makes you realize that there are so many people that you might potentially love one day if only you can stop being so fucking sad all the time! And it's hard to stop being so fucking sad all the time, but it's possible! My most recent break-up was really hard too. I ended a three year relationship with the person I thought I would love forever and ever and ever, and then when it was over, I had to reconcile with my previous conviction that this was the person I would always love more than anyone else, because if I allowed myself to believe that to be absolutely true then I was looking at a pretty lonely life without any chance of ever loving anyone else as much ever again and that made me sad for sure. I spent a lot of my nights watching Top Chef, and for whatever reason that that helped me a lot. I went to France feeling sorry for myself because everyone in France seems to be in a relationship (or affair) and it reminded me that I wasn't. But then I fell in love again and I realized that falling in love isn't the hard part (at least not for me,) but figuring out how to sustain and nurture that love is the difficult part. I think I've also learned that even if at the time I feel shattered and like I will never pick myself up from the floor again, there will always come a time when I no longer feel that way, and even the most devastating sadness will eventually go away and what's more, when it does, I won't emerge more fragile and broken than ever before, but in fact, it's possible that I'll emerge feeling totally okay and even a little bit happier. I hope my cheesy, new agey, personal anecdote-y advice helps a little.