Exorcise your ex

Here are some tips to help boost your self-esteem:

• Get other people who care for you to tell you how wonderful you are. Write down what they say, as they say it. Pin up all the compliments somewhere where you can see them.
• Use body language to change your feelings. Smile in the mirror at every opportunity. Move quickly and with your head up. Literally put on a happy face.
• Treat yourself - to a shopping spree, a massage or a good holiday. Only one warning: don't make your treats harmful ones. Pigging out on chocolates, cigarettes, alcohol or drugs will just make you put on weight, ruin your skin or delay your recovery.

Step Five: build a new life
Today is the first day of the rest of your life - without him. So start building. Move your furniture, clear the clutter, redecorate. Have a makeover, see a personal shopper, get a new style, create a new image. Pay a visit to the gym - exercise boosts serotonin and instantly makes you feel better.

Live the life you want - go to bed when you want, eat what you want, go where you want. Do all those things you couldn't do because he didn't want to do them or because you were busy struggling to love him. Start setting goals and targets in your life - about your career, your leisure activities, your friends - and do this for a month, three months and a year. Above all, be reassured - your future will be better without him.