As if all the holidays and family gatherings weren’t stressful enough, I read in Cosmopolitan magazine that between December and February there is an increase in breakups. Generally I wouldn’t think anything of this statistic, but a handful of my friends are dealing with break ups over the winter break.

I write a weekly sex column for my school paper and I have covered break ups before, but I think that the new year can be a particularly rough time to deal with a break up.

During the holidays, love seems to be on everyone’s mind. Movies like “Love Actually” and “The Holiday” are shown over and over again. With the gloomy weather, it’s easy to stay in bed all day. Getting over your ex can seem impossible.

On the other hand, the new year is a perfect time to start fresh. You get to leave all old baggage behind and have a completely new start. While moping around and spending days in bed seems like a good option, force yourself to stay active. Take advantage of the fact that most of your friends are around on their breaks as well.

Keeping yourself busy will keep your mind off other things that will just bring you down. My friends and I have one copy of the book “It’s Called a Breakup Because It’s Broken” and we take turns passing it around whenever someone breaks up. As silly as this book may sound, it will make you smile.

Although your break up may feel like the end of the world, you have your friends to help you get through it. You also have the rest of your break to sort things out.