When your heart is broken, the pain can feel unbearable. What do you do when your world falls apart? Do you sit in the darkness and wallow in self-pity? Or do you rise above it, pick up the pieces, and find a way to heal? Are you prepared to keep moving forward even though everything inside of you is screaming to go back again?

Love leaves a mark on who we are as people. It changes us for the better or worse, depending on how we respond to it. If you’ve recently experienced heartbreak, don’t fret! You’re not doomed for life. In fact, God has promised hope and healing ahead as long as you stay focused on what’s important instead of getting caught up in what is unimportant.

Here are some helpful tips that will help you get through almost any kind of heartbreak:

Be honest about your emotions

Generally, people try to hide their emotions when they’re feeling hurt or rejected. Usually, that’s because they’re afraid of being vulnerable, or they don’t know how to process what they’re feeling. Whatever the case may be, self-honesty is the first step in healing.

This means that you need to acknowledge how you feel, even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else. For example, you might not know why you’re feeling the way that you are, but it doesn’t negate the fact that it’s real. Healing starts with acknowledging how you feel, even if it’s hard to do so. And as you process your emotions, you’ll discover why you’re feeling the way that you do.

Be honest with your emotions to God. He sees your pain. The Bible tells us that Jesus wept (John 11:35). He felt emotions, too! When you’re upset or angry, it’s OK to talk to God about those feelings (Psalm 38:8). Just make sure you don’t use this as an excuse for sinning! He knows every tear you’ve cried, every tear you’ll cry, and yet He still loves you.

Confront the truth

Heartbreak is usually the result of a failed relationship or some sort of betrayal. Now, it’s understandable if you don’t fully understand why those things happened, but you at least need to be honest with yourself about them. You must confront the truth if you ever want to move forward. You must be honest with yourself about the circumstances that led to your current situation. You must be honest with yourself about what you could have done better. You must be honest with yourself about what the other person did as well.

Lean on your support system

Heartbreak is a lonely place to be. You might feel like no one truly understands what you’re going through, but that’s not the case. There are people out there who will support you and be there for you, you just have to reach out to them.

Whether that be friends, family, a therapist, or a mentor, and most especially God, you have to find someone who you can lean on during this time. You have to find someone who gets what you’re going through and can help you to process your emotions. If you don’t have anyone who is qualified to do this, consider joining a support group.

Prayer is the key to leaning on God in times of pain. If you’re struggling with a painful situation, I would encourage you to pray, “Lord, here’s my situation; please give me your help.” And then continue to pray throughout the day as needed. God promises to help us in all our troubles (Romans 8:28). He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

Take care of yourself physically and emotionally

Heartbreak is rough on the body and the mind. There are physical and emotional symptoms that come with it, and they’re no fun at all. You’ll want to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself physically during this time.

You don’t want to let yourself get too run down, and this is especially true if you’re going through a heavy breakup. You want to make sure that you’re eating properly and getting enough sleep. You also want to find some sort of healthy coping mechanism that will help to keep you calm and collected.

Surrender the pain to God

This is something that you’ll want to do from the very beginning of your healing journey. You have to surrender all of your pain to God. You have to let go of all of the anger, resentment, and frustration that you’re feeling. You have to let go of the control that you think you have over the situation. You have to let go of the hope that your ex will come back to you or that things will magically go back to the way that they were. And when you do that, when you fully surrender your pain to God, when you fully let go of it, only then will you be able to truly be free of the pain. When you fully let go, you’re able to let God come in and heal you. You’re able to let Him mend your broken heart and make you whole again.

Heartbreak is never an easy thing to go through, but it’s something that happens everyone at some point in life. Heartbreak is an opportunity to grow and learn from your mistakes. It’s an opportunity to be brave in the face of your fears and find a strength that you didn’t know you had. It’s an opportunity to let go of people and things that aren’t serving you and learn to love yourself more as a result. It’s an opportunity to let God come in and heal you and make you whole again.

There is a God who sees your pain, who feels your heartache, who has gone through what you’re going through and will meet you at every crossroad of life.