how should we protect ourselves from getting hurt?

If you want to avoid being hurt, then you should live in an Island where no one is living other than you. People are not perfect. Even those who are close to you can also hurt you, either intentionally or unintentionally. that is why we can not avoid being hurt unless we live alone.

don't expect to much..

The only true way to protect yourself from getting hurt by anotherperson is not to give your heart away to anyone. If we keep our feelings locked up then nobody can get to them if. It would be a safe existence but a lonely one as well.

I think every person has his or her own defense mechanism when it comes to avoiding being hurt. It is really hard to avoid getting hurt especially if we are in love. Love sometimes makes us vulnerable to being hurt. But we should be aware that nobody is perfect, even you commit mistakes so you are bound to get hurt and hurt other people at some point in your life. I love my husband very much but I don't make him the center of my life and the source of my happiness. I make it a point to make God the center of my life and the source of my happiness. I do this so that when there will come a time that my husband commit mistake and hurt me, I will still be able to overcome the experience and be able to move on. It is hard but it takes a lot of effort and prayer to be able to do this.

There really isn't much you can do and if you stay guarded all the time then you can't really expect to find true love.

HURT is a part of LOVING. You will never realize loving if you never experienced hurt. No one can protect or even prevent hurt because it's a part of our being. All you need is to try to think of something to ease the pain of getting hurt rather than to think of a way of not to feel that pain.

I think a part of being human is dealing with heartache. We all have hearts and love someone so we are destined to be hurt and face heartache. One thing I do is allow myself to be vulnerable and expect that at some point I will get hurt. only enough it doesn't hurt as bad.

When I am afraid of getting hurt I try to think about the things that happened earlier in my life, because I know that some of the painful things that happened turned out to be a blessing seen in a bigger perspective. Almost 10 years ago I had a boyfriend from another part of the country, we were supposed to move in together and I got admitted at a nursing school in his area. Just before the school started he broke up with me. It was too late to change my application, so I had to move to his part of country anyway. I was very hurt and I cried a lot in the beginning, but that period actually became on of the best periods in my life. I found many great friends from that area and I also found a new boyfriend. The new relationship was better than my old relationship and we were together for almost 6 years. In 2007 he also broke up with me, I was even more devastated this time and I thought that I was never going to get happy again. Then I met my husband. I have never had a better relationship, and I am more than happy the two other relationships didn't last. The break-ups were hard and very painful when they happened, but they actually lead to a happier life than I had before. I try to use that experience today and try to see things in a bigger perspective. Some things might be painful right now, but they might lead to something very positive in the future