Be Your Own Valentine

Just In Case…

You Can Be

Your Own

Valentine

 by Abigail Dye

February 9, 2018

St. Valentine was beaten with clubs and beheaded on Feb. 14, 278 A.D., according to legend – and History.com. Some say this is the reason we celebrate Valentine’s Day. Some say it’s because of a capitalist scheme to increase consumer spending, some say it’s the day birds choose their mates.

No matter the original reason we buy boxed chocolates and flowers, Valentine’s day is unavoidable…even for singles. Every store you walk into and every post that you see will be promoting V-Day, so it seems singles have two options. One, ignore the day altogether. Or two, join the celebration.  If you don’t have a date, you should go ahead and celebrate Valentine’s Day.   Here’s why…

Who says Valentine’s Day is all about couples?  St. Valentine, who I mentioned earlier, was executed because he was performing marriages for young Roman couples after marriage was banned by Claudius the Cruel.   But, get this – Valentine was single.  So, Valentine died alone in the name of love.

Valentine’s Day should be about exactly that. Love. This doesn’t necessarily mean being in love…just the concept of being able to love.  Thus, the one person you need to love the most, and should celebrate loving – is yourself. William James, a founding father of Western psychology, wrote, “the deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

Self-appreciation entails a lot of things including self-esteem and self-respect. If you don’t respect and love yourself, you can’t expect anyone else to respect or love you. Furthermore, you won’t ever learn how to properly respect or love somebody else.   Buddha once said, “you yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

There are a lot of steps to learning how to love yourself if you don’t already, and showing some appreciation is one of them.  Pay yourself some compliments, reflect on your admirable qualities and even take yourself out to dinner.

It seems that singles who are not dating when V-Day rolls around, either ignore it or resent it. This is most likely because they focus on the love they are not receiving from somebody else, instead of appreciating the love they could supply to themselves.  It’s about time singles stop moping about not having a valentine, and start being their own.

This year, make V-Day a Me-day. You deserve it!