51 Ways To Be Your Own Valentine!

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” Lena Horne

These are some of my own best, self care ideas.  Please choose a few to incorporate in your own life. I hope you will make an intention to  lavish yourself with abundant, extreme  love!  Happy Valentines Day!

1. Create a ritual for yourself that is nurturing and supportive. For example, you could start the day with meditation or prayer for 10 minutes, then prepare your favorite tea, read a book or journal for 10 minutes.
2. Put yourself on your list. Acknowledge that you are important and valuable by making time to consider your needs.
3. Have a good cry or a good laugh. Take the pressure off. Watch a comedy or tell a silly story to a friend. Let the tears flow they release both toxins and emotions.
4. Give yourself a compliment at least once a day. It could be something like “I liked the way I handled that situation.”
5. Get some oxygen. Begin simple daily exercises to boost your bloodstream.
6. Set aside time once a week to do something just for you. It could be anything from watching a cheesy movie, getting a pedicure or walking your dog in the park.
7. Scribble and doodle for the joy of it! Use either crayons or colored pens. Don’t try to make any kind of picture, just let your lines go anywhere on the page in any color you like.
8. Make a list of what is beautiful about you – things like, “I like my eyes” or “I have a nice smile.”
9. Create a battle cry for yourself and practice dismissing the bad girlfriend in your head.
10. Ask a few of your best pals to spend a day out of town with you. Pack a delicious lunch and spend the day doing whatever makes life fun for you!
11. Give yourself a break from people who drain your energies. There are emotional vampires amongst us, take time out from them.
12. Do something good for someone else.
13. Invite your neighbors over for soup. Connection fights loneliness. Make it easy, delicious and casual.
14. Design your perfect day: What would your perfect day look like? Write down when you would get up, what you would do and who would you be with.
15. Share a vision you have for your life with a trusted friend.
16. Build your own team. Who do you know that you could ask to pray, research, help you network, or trade out an expertise with?
17. Plan one day a month to have a day with a girlfriend. Sit down with your calendars and plan a year’s worth and protect those days.
18. Protect your mind: Sensor what you read or watch on TV and take a break from the daily news
19. Be honest, kind and patient with yourself as you learn the new ways of thinking.  Treat yourself as you would a cherished friend.
20. Write your own eulogy. Decide what you want your legacy to be.
21. Change a negative habit. Acknowledge that you created this habit to fulfill a need.  Now you are finding new, positive ways to fulfill those needs.
22. Create a life map of where you want to go and then design some actions to get there.
23. Work with a coach to get support and to help you find strategies for change.
24. Get a physical, mammogram, and pap if age appropriate. Become an advocate for your own health and well-being.
25. Go on an adventure.
26. Find your “power song” and play it when you feel discouraged.
27. Practice smiling. Smile at everyone you meet at the grocery store, the health club, church, and the post office.
28. Go on a soul picnic. Design a weekend, a day or couple of hours away by yourself that feeds your soul.  What will you put in your picnic basket?
29. Take care of your body. What kind of fuel does your body need to have optimum energy and vitality?  Learn about exercise.  What kind of exercise can you enjoy?
30. Forgive someone–forgive yourself. Ask God for his eyes and help.  At least once a day, say, “I forgive _______, I forgive myself.”
31. Go out to a local farm where they let you pick your own produce (apples, peaches, berries, corn, green beans for example). Enjoy the fun of experiencing the actual place where you food was grown as well as the bargain price.
32. Take a walk out in nature early in the morning and take note of God’s creativity.
33. Learn something new, like say how to play an electric Bass guitar.
34. Find something in your favorite color, or find an environmental scent that lifts your spirits. Take it home and use it to decorate your sanctuary.
35. Put together a folder titled: “ My Next Great Adventure” put in it all magazine clippings of and notes of all the places you would like to see or jobs you would like to explore and dream about.
36. Go get your haircut and meet a friend for lunch.
37. Buy something lovely to sleep in.
38. Splurge and get a massage.
39. Buy a kite and make plans to fly it.
40. Put plants in your garden that attract butterflies and birds. Make your yard into a habitat for wildlife.
41. Create a box where you keep treasured cards or letters from friends that remind and you how cherished you are.
42. Buy a coloring book and a pack of 64 crayolas and color the pictures like you did when you were young.
43. Go to Italy.
44. Do the thing that terrifies you. Stretch yourself and discover just how brave you really are.
45. Live in the power of 8 every day: Sleep 8 hours a night, drink 8 glasses of water, and work 8 hours doing something you love.
46. Buy yourself some flowers. Bring in a branch with spring buds, crimson leaves or a bowl of red peppers.
47. Get involved in a group (or start one) where you can be really honest your feelings, dream and need for support.
48. Savor a square of your favorite chocolate and share a bar of it with a friend.
49. Write a letter to God and list all the things you are grateful for.
50. Take a nap.
51. Light a candle and make a promise to love yourself.

Kathy Vick C.L.C.
Life Coach, Author, Speaker
503 886 9642

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