Your Relationship with Yourself.
As Valentine’s Day approaches.
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As Valentine’s Day approaches and I post more and more about my relationship with Sam, I’ve been getting a ton of messages from single people not currently in relationships. Some even responded that they felt they could not participate in our giveaway because they didn’t have a love story to share.
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Love is everywhere! Love is a parent wiping the tears from their child’s eyes when they had a bad day at school, or a friend flying across the country because you had a bad breakup, or a roommate ordering donuts one morning because working from home has been getting super stressful. Love is the young man or woman at the grocery store offering to help an elderly couple home with their groceries, or doing something for a friend you genuinely do not want to - but doing it any way because you know it will make their day a little easier. Love is a smile to a stranger on the street, a sandwich to a homeless person on the subway. Love is family, and friendship, it’s a pet, and yes - even yourself.
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I would argue that the greatest love of all time is your relationship with yourself. It’s treating yourself as you would like to be treated. Being kind to yourself in word and action. It’s carving time out of the day to be with yourself, focused on absolutely nothing but your needs and your wants. See it’s the love we all deem as selfish when actually, when done with intent, is the most selfless of all love. Spending time with yourself and doing what is necessary for you with the intent to be ready, willing, and able to be there for another. How are we meant to show up fully and pour out for others when we ourselves are on empty. It’s like trying to give gas to a stranger who is broken down on the side of the road, when our own car is barely running on fumes. It’s simply not possible.
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I could write a book on self-care. Just ask Sam. How many times I’ve told him - I’m just going to take tonight for myself. Or I’m going to take a bath tonight. It took awhile in the beginning for him not to be offended - but we’ve got it to a point now where he just gets it, he just gets me. He knows what I need sometimes before I even speak it into existence. And that’s the beauty of a relationship. We are two halves, individually showing up for each other every day, as whole. When I’m not good, I’m no use to him - and vise versa.
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I know I say this a lot. But love is love in all forms. It doesn’t need to be exclusively seen as a love shared between two romantic partners. It’s everywhere. So this Valentine’s Day I hope everyone is able to celebrate. Celebrate the love you have in your life. Write yourself a Valentine. Buy yourself some chocolate. Spend the day sending little care packages out to those you call family. Take an hour to text loved ones around the world - letting them know how grateful you are to be a part of their life. Send a single red rose to someone you haven’t spoken to in awhile. Or cuddle up with roommates and big clunky blankets and watch bad rom com movies all day. But most importantly, don’t forget to look yourself in the mirror, and say, “I love you.”