With February 14th quickly approaching, we can all look forward to our social media feeds being flooded with the every so lovely…
A) Depressing posts and tweets about how single you are and how today is just another reminder
OR
B) Picture after picture of gifts with sappy paragraphs about how much you love your significant other
Year after year we complain about both of these generic posts filling our social media feeds, and yet we continuously spend our Valentine’s Day just like every other. Whether that be fawning over our significant others, or indulging in our BFF’s Ben and Jerry and Russel Stover. We roll our eyes at all of the “I love you” texts, posts, and tweets, and choose to ignore the bigger picture. The “I love myself,” behind the “I love you.”
Let me ask you this. When was the last time you woke up on Valentine’s Day, stepped in front of the mirror, and whispered those three words to none other than the reflection staring back at you? When was the last time you looked at yourself and said, “I love you” while truly meaning it? The sad part is most of us will go our entire lives without ever telling ourselves those three simple words.
In today’s society, saying that you love yourself and pointing out reasons that reassure that love is frowned upon. You’re considered self-conceited because loving yourself for who you truly are isn’t encouraged. You post a “selfie” on Instagram, and then you look at the media. Suddenly society makes you feel inferior. They tell you that you’re not skinny enough, not tan enough, not pretty enough. Well let’s set one thing straight right now, you are enough.
February 14th has turned into a day in which society has told you that you have two choices. You can either spend the day lusting over someone else, or you can spend it questioning why you aren’t good enough to have someone else buying you roses and chocolate.
I promise you right now that you don’t have to pick one or the other. In fact I challenge you to pick both, pick neither, pick whatever you want.
Spend your Valentine’s Day with the one you love, doing something you love, or simply falling in love with yourself. Break through the social misconceptions that you need someone else to make yourself complete because I can promise you that if you look straight in the mirror you’ll find everything you need is staring right back at you.