While most girls choose to take a tub of ice cream and cry over their breakup, Karylledecided to go on a retreat to deal with hers.
"My first concern was dealing with the breakup, and facing the media circus that would come from it, which I dreaded," she shares as she poses in a swimsuit on the cover of marie claire this March, "But I realized it could also be an opportunity for me to come to terms with the other separation that shaped my life-that of my mom from my dad."
Karylle also sought counseling to deal with her parents' separation, as she shares, "I didn't know I had to deal with my family problems in a certain way, that I had to cut them away from me so I don't pass them on to my children. Kung namamana mo ang voice or talents, namamana mo rin angproblems, bad habits, addictions."
Aside from going on a retreat and seeking counseling, an active lifestyle also proved to be therapeutic for Karylle. A combination of working out, Pilates, walking, and even running a marathon for UNICEF resulted in the fit and sexy physique Karylle flaunts on the cover of marie claire and on the Bench billboard that reads "Single is Sexy."
Of the billboard, Karylle says, "I didn't approach it as pa-sexy. It was just, at that point, I felt so fit. I felt more confident about myself, about the way I carried myself." She laughs about the tagline, saying, "It's better naman than 'Single is Stressed Out' or 'Single is Losyang', di ba? [I want to tell people that] there's no better opportunity than when you're single to get to know yourself and what you can do."
The breakup also provided Karylle with an unexpected opportunity: to be a role model for women who have had to overcome personal crises. "Women and even gay men are approaching me with their problems—not just the obvious ones about love, but even about business!" she says, sharing that she plans to put up a blog so that she can address all the letters that she has been receiving, and perhaps share the lessons she has learned coming out of this breakup.
Karylle tells marie claire, "[I learned that] we should learn to accept the good things people see in us with grace and gratitude. It's like a deposit in our emotional bank account. When we beat ourselves up over criticism, that's an emotional withdrawal. Dapat laging may deposit."
At this point in her life, Karylle says, "I'm celebrating who and where I am right now. I'm healthy, I'm fit... I feel fine!" Read more about Karylle in the March issue of marie claire, available in newsstands, bookstores, and supermarkets nationwide.