Retailers of chocolates and flowers do quite well on Valentine’s Day. Lovers all over the world looking for the perfect gift, the perfect card and making arrangements for the perfect date. No pressure there! With all of the attention and focus on love for Valentine’s day, what if you are single? Or, what if, you are in a relationship but are tired of following the crowd and making one particular day significant just because someone else said it was so?
Here’s an idea, what if, this Valentine’s Day, single or in a relationship, you skip the roses and chocolate and made the day about you?
If you are in a relationship, you might be a bit hesitant with this idea, but couples don’t have to follow the crowd to celebrate their love. In fact, your relationship could benefit more if you turn your back on tradition and choose to do something new.
Here are my top three tips to create fun with your Un-Valentine’s Day:
(1) Create a gratitude list – for YOU
You are the most valuable product in your relationship. When you honor you, when you are kind to you, when you consider what works for you and chose that, everything in your life gets better. This Valentine’s Day, as a way of honoring you,
start a gratitude list for you. What are you grateful for about you? What gift are you to the world? What contribution are you to everyone you meet? Would you be willing to acknowledge you?
Gratitude has a way of expanding and increasing. When you choose to have gratitude for you, it expands to include others too.
(2) Ask, “What’s the most important thing to me?
Asking this question, “What’s the most important thing to me?” is a very un-valentine thing to do. You are “supposed” to make everything about the other person in order to prove that you care, right? The opposite is actually true. If you don’t include you in the relationship, if you don’t create your life the way you’d like it to be, your relationship will be unhappy at best.
- Here are some questions you can ask:
- What would I like my life to be like in five years?
- Do I want to travel?
- How much money do I want to make?
- What is it that’s most important to me?
When you are clear on what’s important to you, then you can create a relationship that actually contributes to you having, doing and being all of that and Valentine’s Day is a good day to start.
(3) Practice Generosity
Who or what could you contribute to you? There are lonely people in the world. Your kindness, your smile, your willingness to be you make a difference. What’s something you could contribute to that would be fun for you? Perhaps it’s volunteering at a school or bringing food to a food bank. Maybe you could help clean up a park or visit kids in the hospital. Rather than trying to create the perfect Valentine’s Day or sulk over the fact that you don’t have a relationship, find a way to give back. And, if you are in a relationship, you might want to do this as a couple. The act of giving will improve your outlook on life and bring you closer together.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock