Higgins says he isn't quite ready to date yet as his ex-fiancée Lauren Bushnell moves on with a new boyfriend

Ben Higgins Says Kissing Someone Right Now 'Would Be Really Hard for Me' as Ex Lauren Bushnell Moves on with New Boyfriend

Lauren Bushnell is going steady with someone new two months after splitting from Ben Higgins, but her ex says he likely won’t be moving on any time soon.

“If I were to kiss somebody right now in my life, it would hold a lot of weight,” the former Bachelor, 29, says on an upcoming episode (shared exclusively with PEOPLE) of his and Ashley Iaconetti’s iHeartRadio show “Almost Famous.” “It would be really hard for me. Right now, for me to kiss anybody … my chest kind of gets tight. I know that’s really difficult for me.”

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Though he didn’t address his ex-fiancée’s new relationship, the reality star says he’s taking it slow when it comes to his own love life.

“Recently I’ve tried to stay away from talking about those situations ’cause I know they hurt people and they’re hard to talk about still,” Higgins told Iaconetti when she asked how many “months away” he is from getting back into the dating game. “Dating or relationships are very sensitive to me right now and it’s just not something I’m wanting to talk about, honestly.”

But the Denver-based Higgins admitted he was inspired recently after listening to a sermon by one of his “favorite” pastors. “He talks about heartbreak and breakups and how you move forward and move on,” explains Higgins.

“He recommended you take a considerable amount of time in this part of life where you’re exiting out of a breakup and you’re broken to find yourself, to fill yourself with things that are good, to fill yourself with friendships and to fill yourself with healthy habits and your faith and prayer and meditation,” he continues.

Though he knows he’s not ready for a new girlfriend just yet, Higgins admits he does get “tempted” by the thought of a new relationship.

“I desire commitment and I desire to emotionally attach myself to somebody … and say ‘Hey, I’ve got your back and I’m here for you,'” he says. “[But] I am forcing myself to get to know myself better, to find myself a little bit, to figure out who I am now. Once I do that–I don’t know when that is–hopefully I’ll have somebody then in my life who will tell me they love me and I’ll know it.”

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Higgins and Bushnell fell in love on The Bachelor and split in May after more than a year together. According to multiple reports, Bushnell, 27, is dating a new man named Devin Antin.