Sometimes people can make you feel like you can’t breathe. Their presence is just suffocating you so bad. Sometimes they just give you a bad headache, but you still let them come back anyway. And sometimes, you really want to see the good in someone and you try your best to keep it working but it’s just not going anywhere. These are the people you need to say Thank you, next to.

In the song, Ariana Grande says she’s grateful for her ex and someone like me might be like “I think not”. But sometimes we have to take a look at the good outcomes that came from our ex’s. Yea, I know, that’s harder said than done for some relationships but it’s necessary and for many reasons. Some may feel like their time was wasted, but it wasn’t. Look at the lessons that were taught. For example, Ariana names the lessons that were taught in each of her past relationships like love, patience, pain. Past relationships can teach you so many lessons and ultimately what you really want or expect out of someone. They can teach you what you can handle and what you’re not willing to tolerate. It’s so hard for some of us to let go of anger and pain, but sit for a second and think about what you learned. You have to assess.

I think the most important part of Thank You, Next is the NEXT part. The song isn’t called Thank You, Come Again. It’s called Thank You, Next…as in thanks for the lessons that you taught me but I’m ready for something or someone new. That part can be even harder than accepting to learn the lessons that were taught. In combination with learning those lessons, you have to learn to apply them to your next relationship…not keep going back to what just didn’t work before. I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this before, but I took my ex back a total of maybe 8 times…EIGHT TIMES. Crazy right!? Well, it took me a while to first even realize the lessons that I was meant to learn and secondly, that they were meant to be applied elsewhere and not with the same guy that keeps dragging me down.

Whether you like Ariana Grande or not, you can take the words to these songs and apply them. Apply them to the next relationship…whether that be with someone else…or yourself.