Celebrate love, not romance, on Valentine’s day

Since the 1st January retailers have been preparing for Valentines day and cynics have been rolling their eyes at the hearts, cupids and other paraphernalia paraded at this time of year. Personally today I think Valentine’s day gets a bad wrap. There are hundreds of articles out there against valentine’s day, thousands of people actually ‘hate’ valentines day and personally this confuses me. I get the hatred of the crash commercialism of the day (it’s the same as Christmas, Halloween and Easter) but to ‘hate’ a day about celebrating love. To me that seems illogical. We know that “It’s love that makes the world go round”, Love is one of the many things that makes life’s journey interesting, it’s what makes the world a better place. How can a day that celebrates this wonderful thing be hated? Because of our associations with valentine’s day.

Today Valentine’s day is a huge consumer festival marketed at couples. However I don’t remember “love” as being something only couples share. I am pretty sure we all have someone (if not everyone)we love, in our lives right now. We love our family, our children, our friends, our pets and yes even our favourite celebrities. We love alot and often. It is truly a gift we have been given the ability to love. For me this is what valentine’s day is about. Celebrating this gift and the people and things that we love in our lives. For me valentine’s day is about taking one day to celebrate all the good in my life. All the joy. All the wonder. A day where I can express all of my love. For others and also very importantly for myself.

So instead of rolling your eyes on wednesday when you see the hearts and the roses. How would it feel to remember those you love, to be grateful for the good in your life you have here and now. Wouldn’t that feel great! Wouldn’t your friends and family feel wonderful if you just out of the blue contacted them to say ‘hey I love you ‘. And wouldn’t it feel good to celebrate how wonderful you are by practising some self love. Get out of the consumer hate this valentines day and get into how amazingly lucky you are to love and be loved in your life.

And if you don’t know how, heres a few ideas to get you started:

Love my life

A great way to start valentine’s day is to list all the loves in your life. This can be people, things, memories, pets. Just make a list of all that you love. Start each sentence with I love…….If you are driving to work and don’t have time to write it you can say them out loud. See how much love there is in your life.

Make someone else feel special

Choose a person who you love that your don’t see very often and make them feel special. Maybe it is a little thing like giving your co workers their favourite chocolate, calling your favourite childhood aunt, taking your dog for an extra long walk, or sending a loving message over Facebook to someone you don’t contact often. Little things go a long, long way.

Spread the love

If you want to spread the love even further you could do something nice for someone you don’t know just to make them smile. Or donate to charity. Fill up 10 parking meters. If you want to go all out you could send valentines cards to everyone you know. Fill the office with valentines balloons. Give out 12 roses to people on the train.

Show yourself some self love

Valentine’s day is the best day for self love. And that is also when you are in a relationship. Pamper yourself. Dress fabulously for the day. Go for a spa or give yourself a hand massage. Treat yourself. Buy yourself flowers. Self love affirmations are an amazing way to start and end the day. Looking in the mirror you can say

“I love every part of myself including all of my imperfections, which make me who I am and uniquely lovable” or  “I’m bright, brilliant, and beautiful” or make up your own. Make a happy memory loving yourself this valentine’s day.

Write a love note

Yes I mean it. Write a love note….to yourself. Tell yourself everything you love about you. Write it as though you are your own lover. And I don’t mean explicit and x rated! Write it to celebrate your beauty, as a declaration of love and a declaration of how you will always be there for yourself and promise to care for yourself. Remember Oscar Wilde said ““To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” The most important romance.

(You can of course write one for someone else as well, if you want to.)

Hold a love celebration party with your favourite things

Instead of boycotting Valentine’s day why not fill your home with the people you love and celebrate each other. An easy way to do this is to ask everyone to bring their favourite food, drink and game to share. Share the things you love with the people you love and make an amazing memory together!

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Love is a so much healthier and nicer emotion than hate. So take the opportunity this Valentines day gives you to celebrate the love in your life. Love comes in many forms so don’t limit yourself to chocolates, a card or a day hiding under the duvet. You can choose to create this day however you wish and I know that when you put your mind to it you will make a much more beautiful experience for yourself and those you love than all the consumer holiday marketing experts could ever imagine!

Have a lovely week <3

Celebrating love is

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