Taking a Break from Dating: When Should You Do It and What Are the Benefits?

There’s a lot to love about dating, but it’s certainly possible to have too much of a good thing. You can get burnt out on dating to the same extent you can work, so it’s essential to know when it might be time for a break. (The search for love isn’t all there is to life, after all.) Here’s a closer look at the benefits of temporarily putting your love life on pause when you feel yourself getting frustrated with the whole process.

When Is It Time for a Break?

You don’t necessarily have to wait to feel fed-up with dating to take a break from it. It’s a good idea to know the signs that you’re overdue for one, though. They include the following:

• Dating feels like a full-time job, a drudge, or a chore.
• You feel like you keep dating the same unsatisfying types of people, and you’re over it.
• You’ve just had your heart broken or suffered some other colossal disappointment.
• Dating feels like it’s taking up all your time and getting in the way of other things.
• You’re just plain sick and tired of doing the whole dance involved.

Dating and sex are supposed to feel fun, exciting, and enticing. If that’s not how they feel to you right now, it’s in your best interest to step back until they do again. In the meantime, you can enjoy perks like the following.

Falling in Love with Yourself Again

When you’re always focused on finding love with someone else, you forget how satisfying it can feel to love yourself. Maybe you’ve never really done that before. Whatever the case may be for you, a dating break is a perfect time to do some catch-up work in that regard and get to know yourself a little bit better.

Discover some new interests and dive as deeply into them as you like. Give that edgy new look you’ve been thinking about a try. Treat yourself to a new luxury sex toy and have an orgasm or two solely on your own terms for a change. Whether you have partners in your life or not, self-love of any kind is always a wise time investment.

Catching Up on Your To-Do List

It’s not that anyone plans on pushing certain aspects of life to the sidelines when they’re with someone. It’s just that dating takes up a ton of time and energy. Before you know it, you’re all wrapped up in it, and it’s been forever since you hung out with your friends or took on a personal project just because you wanted to.

Take a moment to consider what you’ve been neglecting to make more room in your schedule for dating. Get more involved at work and go for that promotion you’ve been dreaming about. Plan one of those dinner parties you used to love to have with your besties all the time. Redecorate your living room the way you’ve been meaning to and go hog wild with making it everything you want it to be. You get the picture.

Repurposing Your Disposable Income

Dating doesn’t just take a lot out of you mentally and emotionally. It can be pretty costly from a financial standpoint, as well. Even when you’re splitting the bill, all those restaurant dinners, movies, tickets, and cocktails add up after a while. Then there is the way the dates that don’t go so well wind up feeling like a colossal waste of money.

A dating break is a perfect chance to give your finances a little reboot. Save up the cash you’re not spending on all those outings for a rainy day. Alternatively, spend them on a bit of something you’ve been wanting and haven’t felt you could justify. One of the greatest things about single life is not having to explain yourself to anyone when you feel like treating yourself.

Finally Getting Your Mojo Back

No matter how tired of dating you are right now, there was undoubtedly a time when you felt utterly differently, even if it was way back when you first started. Do you remember the butterflies you’d feel when you’ve just had a fantastic date with someone genuinely interesting? How about the optimism you’d have when a relationship was working out, or the possibilities you’d imagine when locking eyes with a stranger from across the room?

Give yourself some time and space to reboot a little. Focus on other things you love about life for a while. Eventually, you’ll feel ready to get back out there again, and you’ll find yourself getting super excited for all those fantastic little meetings and occurrences. Everyone needs a break sometimes, and it’s incredible how recuperative those breaks can be.