It's never an easy decision to ask for relationship space.
Breaking up may seem like the kinder gentler option but sometimes there is method to the madness and taking a break can really help you both focus on what is good about your relationship, what needs to change, and what can make it even better.
If you feel your relationship might benefit from taking a bit of a break it's a good idea to set a few ground rules before going off the reservation.
Otherwise there could be a great deal of doubt, insecurity, and uncertainty that overrules reason and good intentions quickly.
If you leave things up in the air you'll have the "other party" questioning everything about the relationship and your intentions.
Ground rules and deadlines will help eliminate some of this as will a few of these great suggestions: 1)    Set up a time for weekly phone calls and place a time limit on those calls.
This gives you both the opportunity to touch base and an established time for doing so.
Just as it's important not to call in between established times without a very good reason it's also not wise to miss them without an equally good reason so plan them with great care and caution.
2)    Give yourselves a deadline for either reconciling or moving on.
While it can be an excellent idea to get a little distance the line between relationship space breaking up can become quite difficult to distinguish if too much time passes.
3)    Decide up front if you are going to be seeing other people during this "relationship space break.
" It's not good to use this as an opportunity to see if the grass is greener with someone else.
If you are going to do that your partner needs to know and be aware that this is going on.
It will be much better than being caught red handed or even discovered later on if you do get back together.