9 Ways to Protect Your Mental Health While Navigating the Dating Scene

Dating has always been a perilous task for those of both sexes, but with the advent of modern dating sensibilities and expectations, it has become a genuine minefield that can take a massive chunk out of your self-esteem if you allow the process to take over you. Contemporary issues like ghosting and catfishing have never really been an issue in the past, but modern daters have a lot to contend with. Fortunately, by taking the proper steps, you can avoid the worst of it and come out on the other side with a companion that you believe is the perfect match and has a high possibility of staying with you in the long run.

Choose A Site That Matches Your Desired Outcome

Although the internet has brought about a great many advantages in a number of fields, including dating, it also has a flipside, whereby the analysis paralysis can stop you in your tracks and cause serious problems with not knowing where to begin. In order to avoid this fate, you ought to choose a dating site that matches what you want to get out of the experience. For instance, this might mean going niche and selecting a site that might appeal to recent divorcees. Conversely, it could entail opting for a site or app that caters to first-time daters seeking a more long-term relationship. Whatever outcome you want to achieve will be best met by choosing a site that has been set up for that specific purpose. If you are simply seeking to enter the largest pool of possible compatible matches as possible, then you can go for a more generic option, but for all others, niching down can often yield greater results.

Prioritize Self-Care Throughout Your Dating Journey

When you first start the dating process, it can often seem as though all other aspects of your life begin to move further and further away. This is typically most prominent during the entail dating stages when you first meet up as you will be going out on dates, eating more, and, as a result, perhaps even neglecting your own body in an effort to spend more time with your new partner in the hopes that they will be more inclined to remain with you. Instead, you ought to be prioritizing self-care in all components of your life. This can manifest as working out more often or when your schedule allows, eating correctly, and simply making enough time to keep your body healthy and functioning perfectly. A healthy body is part of a well-rounded effort to keep your mental faculties intact, with the other part being the mental side of things…

Focus On Personal Growth And Hobbies And Let The Rest Fall Into Place

As we touched on in the previous point, your life can often take a backseat to the dating process, leaving you at a loss when it comes to doing the things you actually love and enjoy. By placing a higher emphasis on continuing your hobbies (or finding some new ones if you happen to be bereft of such things), you will achieve two distinct positive outcomes:

1. You will keep your mind active and focus on the things that make you happy.
2. You will create a far more interesting persona that might be more appealing to those you're currently trying to woo online.

Regarding the first point, it can be exceptionally mentally healthy to keep your mind active and do the sorts of things that bring you happiness. And per the second point, there is something much more inherently desirable about a person who has real-life hobbies and interests, and which can also be a point from which to begin a conversion with a like-minded individual you have found online.

Set Healthy Boundaries And Encourage Your Date To Do The Same

Everyone has boundaries, whether they know it or not. It is perfectly healthy and utterly desirable for all involved to know what these boundaries are and where they stand. You can also encourage those you find online to set their own so that you both go into a relationship with the right attitude towards each other.

Communicate Openly About Your Feelings

This point involves a little finesse, and while we have all heard that it is a great thing to open up fully to other people, you need to do it in a way that doesn't come across as off-putting or overly offensive to the other party. Nonetheless, by getting the balance correct, you can avoid a considerable number of problems that come from miscommunication or no communication at all.

Take Breaks When Needed To Recharge When You're Feeling Down And Regroup For Another Attempt

If you've been at the job of finding online matches for a considerable amount of time without any luck thus far, it can suddenly feel as though you are just going through the motions each day by logging in and out of the app with seemingly no hope. When this occurs, it's best to take a step back from the entire approach and get on with your life until you're ready to jump back in again. This will give you some time to rethink your strategy and approach to dating so you can regain a kind of freshness that can disappear after doing the same thing over and over again with little to no results.

Surround Yourself With Supportive Friends

Your friends were there before you started dating and will probably be there after you've found a match, so it's wise to treat them with the sort of respect they deserve. If you happen to have a great bunch of friends and family, you can ask them for honest advice or words of comfort when things aren't exactly going to plan. This can offer some mental respite from the constant rejection that online dating can bring.

Trust Your Instincts When They Are Sounding An Alarm

Your instincts are an in-built mechanism that has evolved over millennia to warn you of potential danger and to get out of there fast. Unfortunately, modern society has somewhat dulled this innate sense, which causes a lot of distress for those unable to tap into it. If you can rekindle this feeling and use it to your advantage, your instincts can guide you away from a potential dating disaster and towards one that is more likely to succeed.

Know That Rejection Is A Perfectly Normal Part Of The Courting Process

Rejection is arguably the worst part of the dating experience and happens to everyone, regardless of what they might say. However, it's how you treat being rejected that can be the difference between remaining positive or falling into a deep depression. As long as you understand that it's never personal (how can it be if you're only speaking to someone online), you will be in a far better position to enjoy yourself and come out on the other side with the right person.

Dating has never been an easy task, and it can result in some pretty horrible feelings when suffering from rejection after rejection. However, by heeding these points, you should be better placed to have fun and find someone who matches you perfectly.

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