That sh*t hurts.

I’ve come to despise the pain that you feel in your heart when you know that a once incredible and beautiful love has come to an end. It’s that overwhelming stinging that takes over your chest, makes your short of breath and always shouts to me, “Never again!”.

So I listened.

For a year and a half I listened to that voice and stayed as far away from any love interest as possible. I talked to a few guys here and there but only when I knew that there was no potential for me to fall head over heels for them.

I figured this would keep me safe. If I kept my heart caged and locked, there was no way that I could ever be hurt again right?

Wrong.

The opposite actually happened.

One and a half years after my last break up, 547 days of forcing myself to be single and I’m realizing that the tables had turned-i was the one bringing this stinging feeling upon myself.

For the past 78 weeks I have told myself that I was not allowed to fall for anybody. If a guy gave me butterflies, I walked away immediately.

Guess what happened?

I felt lonely. I started to feel like I didn’t have the value that I use to. Most importantly, I forgot how much I love to love.

I have woken up to this realization and I have come to the conclusion that it is time to let it go.

It is time to let go of this fear of being hurt because what stands outside of this cage that I’ve built for myself is the potential for something beautiful. Maybe it last less than a month but at the end of the day I can say that I took the risk and I had fun.

What happens when our hearts break is that we start to take love too seriously, we see it as a danger.

Unfortunately I can’t promise myself or you that this advice won’t cause future pain but I can promise that it will be the time of your life.

I can tell you that when you let go of the fear of being hurt and embrace the idea of letting love be fun, an entirely new world opens up to you.

You realize that you do have value and that you don’t have to be lonely. You find that there is so much to learn from these experiences and that one day they will mold who you are as a significant other.

Yes, that sh*t will most likely hurt again. Tears will be shed and I might feel a sense of regret but in the end what I gained from the experience of falling in love will be ten fold of what I lost from having to walk away from it.

This is your sign to open the cage that holds your heart and to let it fly free, allowing it to lead you freely to the exact person that’s meant for you.