How to Practice Self-Love on Valentine’s Day (And Every Day)

Valentine’s Day…gyalentine’s day… you get the gist.

This holiday is widely known as a day to celebrate the love you have for your partner. Shower them with gifts or words of affection or spend the day professing your love in all forms of the love language but what about the relationship with the self?

While Valentine’s day is heavily geared towards how you show love for your partner, we cannot forget who our very true and first love should be which is: yourself.

Read on to explore the many ways you can learn to show yourself a little more love on Valentine’s day and every day.

Self-Love Is…

What comes to mind when you think of the term, “Self-Love”?

Do you think of it as time spent alone? Is it ordering your fav foods and binge-watching movies? Or maybe it means putting your phone on DND for peace and quiet. Whatever it means for you is completely subjective and can therefore mean many things, but there is a general theme that exists.

Self-love is a state of appreciation for oneself that grows from actions that support one’s physical, psychological, and spiritual growth.

What that looks like for you may be completely different than what it’s like for me, but it’s more so about how you show yourself that care and appreciation in a way that matters to you.

Why is Self-Love Important?

Imagine what your life would be like without the element of self-love. I presume it would feel like a never-ending loop of trying to pour from an empty cup. You simply cannot give much of yourself if there is no source that it stems from. You can think of self-love as providing that purpose in your life along with these other benefits:

Greater Life Satifisfaction

Simply put when you love yourself more, you’re able to navigate life with more purpose, have healthy self-esteem, and be more intentional about who you surround yourself with. When you can count on yourself for the love and validation you need, you won’t fall victim to giving that power to someone else. In many direct and indirect ways, this can help improve your quality of life and sense of self.

Cultivate Good Habits

The second benefit of self-love is that it can encourage us to pick up good habits. Self-love means loving your body, soul, and mind. Therefore, people who love themselves often refrain from doing things that will have an impact on their peace of mind and can create healthy boundaries that preserve their wellbeing.

Improves Your Mental Health

Another important benefit of self-love is better mental health. Learning to love yourself reduces stress, reduces your chance of becoming depressed or overly dependent on how others perceive you, and can pave the way to a positive mindset (an essential ingredient for success in life and for mental wellbeing).

10 Ways to Practice Self-Love

Now that we’ve explored what self-love is and why it’s important, let’s focus on how we can implement these practices into our lives (or at least be more intentional about them).

Given that self-love comes from the self, this is something that we can begin to cultivate on our own terms in ways that can make us feel more appreciated, heard, seen, and empower us to radiate positive energy from within.

Here are 10 ways you can begin to practice self-love:

1. Practice self-compassion. It’s really easy to give out great advice, words of encouragement or pep talks to others, but when we have to do it for ourselves it’s almost like we need an extra nudge. Get into the practice of speaking those kind and encouraging words to yourself because you deserve the same care and kindness you give to others.
2. Journaling. Did you know journaling is a great way to help regulate your emotions? By being open and honest about thoughts that come to mind, putting pen to paper can help you release emotions you didn’t even know you had bottled up. Journaling can help you process thoughts, improve emotional intelligence and even lead to healing.
3. Movement. Exercise, playing sports, going for a walk or hike, dancing – all have one thing in common and that is physical movement. Being immersed in the moment and giving yourself a chance to feel and experience movement is a great way to give back to your body and is also a chance for you to move stagnant energy around.
4. Spend quality time with loved ones. Whether it be your family, friends or your pet – making sure to spend time around people you actually enjoy can give you a great serotonin boost
5. Take up an activity you enjoy. This looks different for everyone, but do something you love or that brings you joy! Writing blog posts like these brings me joy, so I make sure I make the time to do this.
6. Laugh. When was the last time you laughed? Not a chuckle, but a deep gut kinda laugh? Laughing not only releases endorphins but boosts your mood, lightens stress and is fun to do. Take some time out to watch a comedy or – try laughter yoga!
7. Meditation. There are many forms of meditation that go beyond sitting cross-legged with your eyes closed. You can try active meditation or guided meditation — whatever feels best for you. What’s important is that you make time to just observe thoughts that appear and give your brain the mental space to just be.
8. Spend time outdoors (in the sun). The sun has so many healing benefits such as boosting your mood, improving sleep and reducing stress. Spending time in nature has the ability to make you feel better emotionally as well.
9. Do something nice for someone. Now I know this sounds counterproductive, but sometimes doing something nice for another can have a positive effect on your mood. Give someone a compliment for no reason, hold the door open for a stranger, offer to pay for someone’s meal – guaranteed to make you feel better and even if it doesn’t know that you did a good deed.
10. Celebrate your wins. Big or small, celebrate yourself whenever you do something you’re proud of. When you accomplish something, sit in that feeling for a bit longer and congratulate yourself for sticking to it.

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I’m interested to hear, what does self-love mean to you? And how do you practice?