- 1). Find a good time to talk to your significant other about your desire to take a relationship break. Wait until you are both relaxed and have free time. Avoid beginning this discussion after a long, stressful day at work when you both have other things on your minds.
- 2). Tell your significant other that you would like to take a break and tell him or her the reasons why. Maybe you're not sure the two of you are compatible, for example, or perhaps you have emotional issues to work on.
- 3). Establish a timeline for when you will reunite. Assure your significant other that this is just a break and that you intend to re-enter the relationship after the break is over.
- 4). Lay ground rules for how you will communicate during the break. Maybe you will not talk at all, for example. Or perhaps you will limit conversations to weekly phone chats or communicate solely through email.
- 5). Discuss whether you will see other people. Consider whether you can handle the thought of your significant other dating other people, even if the two of you are on a break. Likewise, think about whether you want to maintain a monogamous commitment to someone you may not see or communicate with for an extended period of time.
- 6). Decide who will inform your common friends regarding the break. Also, evaluate if the two of you will be comfortable hanging out in the same social setting with common friends while on break. If you're not, establish rules for determining who will bow out of future social engagements in order to protect the break's ground rules.
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