It’s Valentine’s Day season! Which means everywhere you go there will be advertisements, themed gifts and events to help you celebrate the love in your life. But sadly, when it comes to our society, we have adopted a very narrow outlook on love. We only consider love legitimate if it comes into our lives in the form of a partner. But love can exist in so many variations!
The ancient Greeks knew this, that’s why they believed that one could experience six different kinds of love in a single lifetime. There’s “eros” which pertains to sexual passion, “philia” that relates to the deep friendships in our life, “ludus” – the kind of harmless, playful love that teenagers feel, “agape” or the unconditional love that does not ask for anything in return, “pragma” or the love that comes from the practicalities of being married for a long time and the last one, “Philautia” or the love that we feel for ourselves. There are other kinds of love too (like “storge” and “mania”), but they are smaller sub-sects of these major categories.
While all of these loves are important in life if one wants to completely experience any of these “loves” they must first have a healthy relationship with themselves. How can you love someone – friend, family, partner, pet – if you don’t learn to love yourself? So when it comes to understanding love, the natural first step is loving yourself. While this can be a long, challenging journey – an easy way to start it is to listen to some empowering music. Here’s is our playlist centered on “Philautia” featuring some of the biggest names in music today.
So, this Valentine’s Day listen to these emotional songs and focus on yourself. Make time for things that you love, take yourself on a date and spend time in solitude. That’s our recommendation,“gia party mou” – that’s Greek which roughly translates to “Treat yo self!”