1. YOU'LL BE BRINGING LUGGAGE into YOUR NEW RELATIONSHIP

And I don't mean Louis Vitton. I mean all the bad luggage. If your ex was untrustworthy, you will have trust issues and if he was a jerk, you'll presume your new beau is a jerk, etc. In short you'll make the new guy pay for all the past sins of your last lover, which is unfair and sets your new relationship up to fail. Taking time to get rid of the baggage from the last man is one of the best reasons to wait before dating after a breakup.

2. YOU NEED TIME to HEAL

Whether you were the one who initiated the breakup or not, you need time to heal. The old saying, "time heals all wounds," is mostly true and you need to give yourself time to heal whatever hurts or emotional bruises you have received from this past relationship.

3. HAPPINESS

If you can't be happy with yourself, you can't be happy with someone else. Take this time to love yourself, love life, love your family and realize you are more than ok without anyone else. Only then can even begin to think about sharing your happy self with someone else, hopefully another happy person. After all, 1 happy person + 1 happy person = 2 happy people in a relationship.

4. ATTRACTIVENESS

Let's face it, if your thinking of dating someone else, isn't it more attractive to be able to say "my last relationship was over almost a year ago" rather than "I just broke up with my boyfriend last Tuesday at 9:00 p.m." Yes. I do believe so. There's nothing worse for the other person than to feel like you may still be hooked on your ex. If you are trying to date too soon this will seem like the case to him, and ruin your chances with someone who could actually be right for you.

5. FUN

It's fun to be single! As great as a relationship is, there is something about being single that just screams "FREEDOM!". You can flirt with whoever you want, eat whatever you want, and run through the house naked if you want.

How much time should you give yourself before dating again? There's no exact time frame, but sorting through this list first will give you a foundation to build upon.