By Books Author Denise Turney
Photo by JessBailyDesign at Pixaby
February is hard to beat when it comes to celebrating love. Red and pink heart and passion colors are popping up, filling the day. It’s an exciting time. Ask a florist, jeweler or restaurateur. Love is more than in the air! In fact, a National Retail Federation survey shares that people expect to spend $27.5 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2025.1
Celebrate Love’s Sweetness During and After Valentine’s Day
Even now, couples are seeking ways to express their deepest and most profound feelings for their partner or spouse. Admit it. Love is the one truth that you never get enough of. Fortunately, love comes in a delightful range of forms, from passion that makes your heart race to a remarkable inner strength to joyous freedom.
So sweet and delicious is romantic love that it may often be the first idea that pops into your mind when you hear or read the word “love”. But you don’t need to be in a romantic relationship to feel and celebrate love this Valentine’s Day and beyond. Although it may sound surprising, you don’t need to be part of a “couple” to set aside time to treasure love.
Reasons to Celebrate Love This Valentine’s Day
Do you doubt it? Feeling left out, alone, or abandoned because you’re not “coupled”? It’s not as bad as you think. As a matter of fact, it’s not bad at all. Check out these 7 reasons to celebrate love on Valentine’s Day and throughout the year:
- Regardless of what has happened or is happening, you can love yourself. Miley Cyrus says it beautifully in her hit song “I Can Love Me Better Than You Can”.
- Making friends stays open. Even if you can’t see it now, you have the chance to introduce yourself to someone, opening the door to a new, healthy friendship.
- Although this may sound harsh, it’s true. Tomorrow is not promised, making celebrating love every day a real smart decision.
- Celebrating love helps you to focus on the good in your life. This, in turn, may lift your mood and open you up to more peace and joy.
- Love connects all living beings. Try it. Commit to loving (only loving) all living beings for a week. See if you feel different. Notice if animals and people react to you differently.
- As you celebrate love this Valentine’s Day and beyond, you redefine what it means to be in love for yourself. After all, just as you can be in a loving, intimate relationship, you can also be in love with life itself. Other ways to be in love include being in love with the arts, music, dance or work that you do.
- The Creator always loves you – always.
Love is Gentle so Be Gentle with Yourself
This Valentine’s Day and after the holiday passes, consider freeing yourself from the idea that life must be a “specific” way for you to give and receive love. In other words, your work environment or work situation doesn’t have to be a certain way for you to find at least one thing to appreciate about work. Feeling pressured, stressed, under-valued, acknowledged, promoted or esteemed can’t stop you from appreciating a characteristic related to work. That applies whether you have an employer or work for yourself.
Even more, your family doesn’t have to be perfect for you to love yourself and every person in your family. In this vein, you can love your neighbors and people in areas you travel to regardless of what’s happening in those areas or with those people. Bottom line, love is a choice you must make.
There are so many ways love expresses itself. I Corinthians 13:4-8 captures a few love traits. For starters, I Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4 shares that, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” Furthermore, “Love never fails.”
Ways to Celebrate Love on Valentine’s Day and Beyond
Now that you have reasons to celebrate love, here are ways to put that celebration into action. Please don’t skimp on this, as just knowing why it’s good to appreciate love is not enough. Love is a choice that requires action.
- Pamper yourself with a relaxing bubble bath
- Send a friend flowers (this includes yourself)
- Go to a concert with friends
- Take time away from work and visit a place you’ve long wanted to explore
- Enjoy dancing with someone or alone with your favorite music playing in the background
- Create homemade Valentine’s Day cards and send them to family and friends
- Facetime loved ones who currently live in another country
- Light candles and enjoy their sweet scent
- Read a beautiful love story captured within the pages of a romantic novel
- Paint a picture that expresses what love means to you at this stage in your life
- Have fun swimming at an indoor pool
This year, commit to looking for love in all the right places. Count your blessings every day and appreciate the goodness within and around you. Let trustworthy people in your life gift you with hugs, delicious meals, flowers and more this Valentine’s Day. Open to giving and receiving love more and more. As you do, watch your life open to greater goodness. You deserve it!
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