3 Ways I’m Practicing Self-Love This Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a timely opportunity to practice gratitude, contemplate our most important relationships with others, and spend quality time with those we love. The holiday is also a chance to reflect upon our relationships with ourselves, review our current self-love practices, and celebrate our progress.

As a career coach, I am constantly encouraging my clients to practice self-love throughout their job searches and in their careers. Personally speaking, I find self-love to be critical to my mental health and recovery journey  — I live with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Additionally, self-love enables me to continue doing my work as a helping professional.

Below are three ways I will be intentionally practicing self-love this Valentine’s Day.

1. Continue to work less.

First, I plan to continue working less. As a recovering perfectionist and careeraholic with a major Type A personality, I often find it difficult to switch off from work. Yet, several years ago, I made the difficult decision to work less and seek out happiness beyond my career.

I use my newly found free time to visit my family, go on vacations, and notably, visit Disneyland with my partner, J.V. This time away from work allows me to give my coaching clients my full attention, energy, and effort when I am in the office. I am also using this additional free time to lean into the art of rest and relaxation.

2. Lean into relaxing more.

Now, I am continually learning how to relax when I am not working. While I created a dedicated space for my home office, set concrete working hours, and removed notifications from my iPhone, I still find it difficult to relax when not working.

However, any new skill, including learning how to relax, takes practice. Subsequently, my self-love plans for Valentine’s Day include significant relaxation. I plan to catch up on “This Is Us,” then watch at least a half-dozen episodes of “Judge Judy.” Oh, I will also go for at least one (if not two) Starbucks runs, of course.

3. Journal about what makes me fabulous.

Finally, I will be leaning into one of my favorite forms of self-love — writing. I often hear from my career coaching clients that their favorite “homework” activity is when I assign them to write out everything that makes them fabulous. This Valentine’s Day, I will be assigning myself this activity and writing out all the things that make me fabulous.

I look forward to giving additional thought to and writing about my distinct perspectives on job searching and careers, commitment to sharing my fabulousness with the world, resilience throughout my mental health journey, and everything else that makes me unique.

I encourage you to join me in practicing self-love this Valentine’s Day. If you can — work less, lean into relaxing, and reflect on what makes you fabulous. Happy Valentine’s Day!