4 Ways to Effectively Distract Your Heartbroken Friend

Sometimes when a friend is going through a breakup, she (or he!) might need you, their best friend, to take the temporary role of babysitter to prevent regrettable actions from a temporarily irrational sad place.

For some better alternatives to distract a miserable and obsessing friend, guy or girl, try these four tactics.
1. Take him anywhere he can’t use his phone. Everyone knows that checking your cell phone for apology texts or “I take it all back” missed calls is the number one source of post-breakup insanity. So go somewhere he won’t be checking it every five seconds: a movie, a no-phones-allowed museum, a tough hike.
2. Help her feel good about herself. If your friend has been dumped, chances are, she’s kind of down in the dumps where her self-esteem is concerned. So anything that will put a little swagger back into her walk will help her stop dwelling on silly “What’s wrong with me?” obsessions. Whether it’s splurging on fancy facials together or agreeing to a humiliating game of Scrabble because you know she always destroys you, if she’s thinking about how awesome she is, she won’t be thinking about how great her ex-boyfriend was. (And, ugh, you know he probably wasn’t.)
3. Get him a little attention. You don’t have to (and probably shouldn’t) hook your brokenhearted friend a new significant other, but it couldn’t hurt to talk him up a little to the cute bartender so she’ll give him a little extra ego-boosting, distracting attention while you buy him a drink, could it?
4. Get her out of her comfort zone. You don’t have to give up your usual weekly BFF date of watching Pretty Woman and eating raw cookie dough (as if you would). But breaking her usual routine will make her feel like she’s starting a new chapter, instead of just going through the same old motions as before, with an added hint of misery. For instance, if your usual scene is a quiet bar, go to a noisy basketball game.
GLAMOUR