You Can Be Your Own Valentine

As Valentine’s Day approaches, single people everywhere are beginning to panic. Maybe you’re one of them. Do you ask yourself, “What am I going to do?” “Who am I going to see?” “How am I going to feel?” The idea of being alone on Valentine’s Day fills you with dread. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Regardless of your relationship status, you can have love on Valentine’s Day. You can be your own Valentine.

We live in challenging times. People are finding it more and more difficult to come together in a loving way. As a result, not everyone can find a romantic partner these days, but we all can have love in our lives. You probably already have loving relationships with family, friends, children, even pets.

You also need to know that you can always have more self-love. If you work on loving yourself more you’ll see right away how good it feels. Whether you’re single and looking, in a happy couple, single and content, or in a challenging relationship, everyone can benefit from more self-love.

Self-love is having the same tender emotions toward yourself that you might have toward a child or a pet. It’s valuing yourself, caring for yourself and appreciating yourself. Self-love can be broken down into a few components, including self-acceptance, self-affirmation, self-compassion and self-forgiveness.

Self-acceptance is feeling that you’re okay, no matter what. It’s unconditional positive self-regard.
Self-affirmation is believing in yourself, no matter how many mistakes you’ve made or how many times you’ve failed.
Self-compassion is being understanding and uncritical toward yourself and wanting only the best for yourself.
Self-forgiveness is giving yourself permission to be human and imperfect.

Even if you’re part of a loving couple, it will always benefit you to have more self-love. Being loved by another person will add happiness, meaning and value to your life, but it doesn’t make up for a lack of self-love. Everyone needs both. We all need to be loved by others and to give ourselves unconditional love.

On this Valentine’s day, whether you’re at home watching TV and eating ice-cream, or having a candle-light dinner with the man or woman of your dreams, remember that right now, you can love yourself more and give yourself more acceptance, affirmation, compassion and forgiveness.

You can value, appreciate and care for yourself. You can fill your heart with so much self-love that it overflows out onto your loved ones, showering all of them with loving-kindness. Because the thing is, being your own Valentine is a gift that keeps on giving.

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