Be Your Own Valentine

What does Self Love look like? To me, it looks like setting healthy boundaries, speaking to yourself with kindness, prioritizing your well-being, and making choices that align with your values and happiness. It’s treating yourself with the same compassion and respect that you offer to others. It’s taking time to get to know yourself separately from a partner so you can bring the most authentic you to your relationships. I was single for a long time and I made a point to explore the world around me and my place in it, not waiting for a partner to try a lot of things I found interesting. I reasoned that it might be a long time before I found a person to share adventures with and I didn’t want to miss out on life just because I happened to be uncoupled. I didn’t need any Jerry Maguire to be complete.

Self Love is important because it shapes how you navigate life—your relationships, career, and personal growth all stem from how you view and treat yourself. When you practice self-love, you build confidence, resilience, and a stronger sense of self-worth, making it easier to make decisions that serve your best interests. That confidence gives you the chutzpah to abandon a life you’ve built and move 3000 miles away to start anew. It also helps you attract healthier relationships and cope with challenges with greater ease. By learning to love myself, I have had the good fortune to fall madly in love twice. First with New York and then with Scott, but my relationship with me will always be the most important one.

How do you practice self-love?