It’s that time of year again where everything is covered in hearts, there’s overpriced boxes of chocolates crammed in the aisles and bright red and pink cards that announce our love for our significant other.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Valentine’s Day, it’s good to have an excuse to buy flowers and silly gifts for a partner and to eat too much chocolate. But on this particular Valentine’s Day, whether you have a partner or not, I encourage you to become your own Valentine.

You don’t have to spend a fortune, buying yourself lavish gifts, (though you can if you want to!) but I would like to encourage you to really take some time to love and appreciate yourself. Tell your body how much you love it, and how thankful you are for it. Write a list of all the amazing qualities you have. Write down everything you do that makes you beautiful or unique. Promise yourself that you will not speak badly of yourself in any way, to anyone – not even to yourself.

Write down your wildest dreams, and give yourself permission to begin pursuing them. That project that’s been at the bottom of your to-do list? Put it at the top and go for it!

If you have a partner, then encourage them to do these things too. Perhaps you could even do it together, and help to point out each other’s best parts!

When we truly love and honour ourselves, when we speak kind and loving words to and about ourselves, that is when we are really able to deeply love and cherish others. And that is also when others are able to really love and cherish us. If we are always putting ourselves down in order to solicit compliments from others, then we are missing out on the much greater joy of loving ourselves so much that we don’t need others to confirm it, though if they want to of their own accord, we will happily accept their words!

We are constantly fed the message through the media that we are not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, rich enough etc., and it’s time that we strengthened our belief in ourselves and our love for ourselves and stood proudly and declared:

I am beautiful. I am intelligent. I am abundant. I am awesome. 

And I love myself. 

You are all those things and so much more. And I am sending you an abundance of love and virtual chocolates!

Happy Valentine’s Day, Gorgeous!