Valentine’s Day can get a bad rep as being a hallmark holiday and marketing strategy that heavily promotes consumerism, but let’s be honest from a consumerism perspective EVERY holiday is an opportunity to get people to spend money, yet I don’t feel the same is said about Mothers Day and Fathers Day. We have no problems celebrating our parents, so what’s the issue with celebrating relationships?
If you are one of those that say…“I don’t need a specific day to show my partner that I love them.” That may be true, but I don’t believe that people only wait until the 14th Feb to love on their partner, that would just be ridiculous.
Both singles and people in relationships would argue that the day is overrated and has become cheapened by commercialism and the unnecessary pressure it puts on a relationships.
Now I get where some people are coming from, a scroll through Instagram on Valentine’s Day can have your timeline filled with ridiculous and extravagant gifts from people who clearly have too much money, *rolls eyes*, but who am I to judge?
I am not in a relationship, and I haven’t been in a few years, but I’ve always enjoyed Valentine’s day and my single status hasn’t stopped that.
Lots of people expect singletons to hate this special day, almost as if single people hide in their houses with the covers over their heads, depressed and avoiding everything ‘love related’ until it’s safe to come out on February 15th but for many, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
I remember a friend being shocked when I mentioned I was looking forward to Valentine’s Day because “I didn’t have a boyfriend”, but since when were single people not allowed to enjoy the day?
Love is said to be the highest vibration, spirituality, can you imagine a world without it? So for me, the day is about honoring and celebrating love and unity, in all shapes and forms because love exists outside of romance and it is and always will be a beautiful thing.
Valentine’s Day is fluid
Growing up in my household, my parents always bought flowers or chocolates and a card for me and my siblings on Valentine’s Day and would make us a special dinner to celebrate.
I always assumed they did this to make us feel special and included, so I never felt like V-day should only be celebrated by people who had partners. For us, it was a celebration of love within our family and this is a tradition I will pass on to my children.
Whilst Valentine’s Day is mainly about romantic love, it’s changed over the years and become much more inclusive. People choose to spend the holiday however they see fit, whether celebrating love between platonic relationships like family, friends or pets, and I love that for us, because not everybody is in a romantic relationship and not everybody wants to be, so this shouldn’t stop people from celebrating the holiday.
If you are on the fence about whether you celebrate as a singleton, here are a few reasons why I choose the celebrate the holiday:
1. Celebrate self love
Being single is the perfect time to build self-love and with V-day being all about love, there is no better opportunity to celebrate all the love you have yourself!
Use the day to date yourself. You may not want to take yourself out for dinner on the day where the restaurants are likely to packed full of couples, but you can cook yourself a nice meal, buy yourself flowers or treat yourself to something nice. We do not need a partner to do nice things for us, when we can it ourselves.
2. Celebrate platonic relationships
‘Galentine’s’ has become very popular, whereby women celebrate love within their friendships or ‘sisterhood’. whether or not they are in a relationship, singles even.
‘Maletine’s’ is a similar concept that celebrates friendships among males.
I love scrolling through social media and seeing a group of friends celebrate their friendship in different ways, whether that be a movie night, a boozy night out or dinner.
I had my first Galentine’s last year and I can honestly say I enjoyed it more than any Valentine’s Day I have spent with a man!
3. Celebrate the benefits of being single
If you hate being single then you may be rolling your eyes right now, but seriously, there are many benefits to being single, it can build strength, character, resilience and all the other good self-development stuff if you focus on the right things. The way I see it is, you have two choices, you either embrace your circumstances or spend your time being down and miserable about it, and I know which one I would rather do!
Whilst I love Valentine’s Day I appreciate that not everyone (couples or singles) is obligated to celebrate it and enjoy it, but let’s not try to berate those that enjoy the holiday.
This year, I plan to spend Valentine’s Day by indulging in a self-care ritual, which will probably involve treating myself to a massage and going for a swim and the sauna followed by cooking myself a delicious meal, heck I may even buy myself some flowers because why the hell not?
