Valentine’s Day is a Day full of Happiness, Joy, and Love! It’s a day we spend celebrating the spirit of love, partnership, and growth! And above all, Valentine’s Day is a gateway, a great introduction, to a year full of positivity and fun moments with the person that you love!
There couldn’t really be a better celebration of Love! And that’s why, with this series: a week of Love, we’re making this Valentine’s Day, this 14th of February, really special and astounding for you!
And while we’ve covered the first two basic steps towards making it impactful and empowering for you, there’s still many things that are important to do.
And today, we are going to discuss one of the most important things out of those! What do you think that is?
Prioritizing yourself and loving yourself first. Yep, that’s the most crucial aspect of your life that can either make or break your relationships, your career, and everything else. Today, we’re going to figure out a path together to bring out the good side and transform everything around us!
Are you ready to add more love and joy to your life?!
What is Self-Love?
I know what you’re thinking, “Prabhsimrat, I know what self-love is. So why are we starting at this point? I already know…”
I know that too! I’m pretty sure all of you have heard the term, “Self-love” at least once or twice over the past few years, especially on social media. But the problem is, on social media, the meaning or the true essence of something gets distorted and therefore, while we have a general idea of what something is, we don’t truly understand it.
It’s the same case with self-love. Some people think it’s a consolation for those who can’t find a partner. Others think it’s an essential part of human existence regardless of our romantic status. And then there are others who think of it as an active routine that they must practice to feel confident and good about themselves.
Well, that’s why, for a moment, we’re going to leave these variations aside and make sure that we really understand what self-love is. That’s when we’ll understand its true power.
Let’s just concentrate on the main word: love. What does LOVE mean? Have we ever paused to understand that?
While the dictionary definition would go around the lines of liking something very much, that’s a pretty surface level explanation. I thought deeply about it, and tried to figure out if there really were words capable enough to explain the feeling of LOVE well enough. Turns out, there really aren’t. But one way we could describe it is an amalgamation of being awestruck by someone, being inspired by them, feeling safe around them, feeling comfortable enough to be your truest self, and above all, feeling a sense of surreal joy and having a spring in your step when you think about them. Now, this is not all the things love can be. It’s not possible to put it all out into a book, let alone a paragraph.
But this gives us a basic idea of what love is and what it feels like. Now, what if we complete our word and add “self” to it? It just means that we feel that way, not just around ourselves, but in our own company. We feel worthy within. We are awestruck and amazed by ourselves everyday. We feel safe and secure within and we are confident and vulnerable enough to be who we truly are.
That’s the meaning of self-love: the barebones, filter-free definition.
Why is self-love important this Valentine’s Day?
Don’t worry. I’m not going to go on and ramble about the importance of self-love that makes this post seem like a consolation for those who don’t have a date this Valentine’s Day. That’s not my aim through this series.
My aim is to help you feel and experience love in an even sincere, genuine, and surreal way, by building a strong foundation within to receive and give love on that level. And that’s why, we’re going to talk about self-love!
I’m pretty sure all of you have heard stories that lead to a conclusion to the lines of: you can’t help a thirsty man if your glass is empty, or you can’t help the person next to you breathe if you don’t have your oxygen mask on you first.
We’ve all heard these stories. And many times, we don’t think much about them, do we?
But when it comes to love, there could be nothing truer.
You see, most relationships are all happy and goofy at the start, but over time, as the excitement plateaus, the essence of the relationship comes down to how each person is contributing to it. A one way relationship, where one person is putting in all the effort while the other couldn’t care less, isn’t going to work. And a relationship where no one puts any effort will just blow off.
So, to be able to receive true love, you have to be capable of giving that level of love as well. And that happens when you love yourself to the fullest and are confident about it. Because the truth is that, when you love yourself, you know your worth, you know what you’re good at, what you’re bad at, and when you trust someone enough, you’re able to share all those aspects of your life with them.
That’s true love, not the fantasies that we see in movies and books. And once you embrace this reality, you’ll experience love on a whole new level this Valentine’s Day.
How do you start loving yourself from this Valentine’s Day?
Loving yourself is a process, and it begins with one of the simplest things: prioritizing yourself and your happiness.
I can’t emphasize this enough! Most people put themselves and their happiness behind and suffer, compromize and adjust just to make others feel pleased. That will crush you in the long run. I’ve been there and it’s not good at all.
Instead, it’s so much easier, lighter, and better to put your happiness first and be able to say no to certain things. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to become too stubborn and never bend. It just means that you know that you matter, and that you are confident in your choices.
So, let’s begin that process by consciously choosing to put our happiness first, every day. Take out time to reflect on what really makes you happy, what makes you feel confident and positive about yourself, and do those things every day. The more you start feeling that way, your inner energy will change and before you know it, your relationships will too!