The Importance of Practicing Self-Love This Valentine’s Day

The Importance of Practicing Self-Love This Valentine’s Day

Happy international day of love! Valentine’s Day this year is going to be different, most of us have been under lockdown for the last year and going out to celebrate isn’t an option so all of us will be doing the new staying In. 

I was chatting with my girls on Sunday night over Zoom and Valentines Day conversation popped up: what are you doing? Is anything special planned? This led to hysterical laughter and the curse of Valentine’s Day conversation; my friend Mandy does not celebrate this with her husband due to the curse. I could explain what has happened every time but that would lead to a 10-page blog post, suffice to say they don’t celebrate. My other bestie Katie has booked in a takeaway pub meal to celebrate but this is coming on the 12th due to it all being booked in advance and unable to source the meal for the 14th. Ben has said he is cooking a special meal for the event and I dread to think of the mess after but that’s what a dishwasher is for. This has lead to a slight neurosis as I don’t have a clue as to what to buy him as a present. I also can’t do my usual last-minute thing as the deliveries dates are a little longer so I am spending hours trawling get personal for the perfect way to express a heartfelt Happy Valentine’s, FYI I have never been good at this stuff and I get me into a right tizz. 

Whilst writing this post I have had my 11-year-old shouting self-love quotes to me and rolling my eyes in the process as a few of them were absolute corkers, but one did stand out and that one was 

Self-love is not selfish, you cannot truly love another until you know how to love yourself. 

I for one am never very good at taking any time for myself, especially with lockdown, we are all living on top of each other and finding time between homeschooling, exercise, work and day to day life is complicated. How can I allow time out and some me-time when we are all in the same boat. 

During the month of December Panda made me a personalised version of a pamper advent calendar, during that month I spent every morning excitedly opening the bags and getting my self-love sessions on and I felt better for this come Christmas day. Alas we then spent the last 5 weeks with a bathroom looking like a bomb has hit it as we totally ripped out the room and had the whole bathroom renovated and all new put in, after this weekend we shall have the bathroom finished and I can get back to having my weekly self-love time and trying to reverse the ageing process…

Self-love is not overrated and I feel as adults we need to at least dedicate that little bit of time to us, juggling work and home life whilst being home can be a struggle and can have a detrimental effect to our overall mental well being. 

So how do I practise self-love and put it into action? 

My version of self-love may well be different to others but it is something that is part of my routine and may god help my loved ones should they knock on the door…

Here is what I do:

• – Hiit, 5 x a week, that half hour of exercise time per day means I am focusing on just me and getting fit whilst focusing on my physical being

• – Candle lit bath. Usually on a Saturday, that time is purely for me to rest and relax in the bath with a fair amount of Epsom salts due to the above-mentioned exercises
• – Time out before bed to listen to an audible book
• – Taking a nap when my body tells me I have hit a brick wall, sounds nuts but I suffer with fatigue quite badly and sometimes I need a power nap to function
• – One skincare pamper every two weeks, as a woman I am pretty useless with skincare and pamper sessions, I have always believed that just washing my face was enough.

• – Self-help and motivational reading but not quite what you would expect, I have the whole Sarah Knight collection with a few choice words and the approach to life of learning to say no. I also have the Knee deep in life book written by Laura Belbin who has the most fantastic approach to life.

All of the above mentioned may not seem like self-love but after stoma surgery and finding an even keel in my life as an ostomate I have found that focusing on what makes me feel and look good is my version of self-love. It has helped my mental well being as well as physical and it’s about making personal NSV’s (non-scale victories) and has got me back onto the road of overall good health rather than focusing on one aspect. 

For those of you who may well some me time and some self-love but due to current lockdown don’t know where to start, there are many online resources to order a little something so you can pamper yourself and enjoy some downtime in the most fraught of circumstances

• – Hug in the box from Etsy, I have not purchased one but have taken ideas and created these for both myself, Panda and my friends and posted them out
• – Happy by Fearne Cotton has been recommended but I have yet to pick it up
• – Keeping a jar that you put in all the positives and good things to happen and crack that out once in a while
• – Amazon is also a good place to get those little bits and pieces to have a pamper

That’s about it from me and my version of self-love, what are your ways of approaching self-love? 

As always 

Many thanks for reading 

Louise Xx

Louise uses our Platinum with Vitamin E range to keep her stoma site healthy. Try a sample here.