Girl meets boy. Their eyes meet, it’s love at first sight and they live happily ever after.
Well, it’s a nice story but what happens when girl meets boy, but girl is a bit of an emotional mess?
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it’s too easy to get swept up in tales of romance, fancy candlelit dinners, and buying lavish gifts for your significant other.
But this February, I’m going to invite you to make a date with the actual most important person in your life: you. Because if the past few months have taught me anything, it’s that true love starts way closer to home than the Valentine’s hoopla would have you believe.
Take my relationship with Christian.
The last 12 months or so haven’t been the best, what with a tonne of work stress eating away at me, as well as the devastating loss of my beautiful friend Emily, in April. Christian has helped in a million different ways and brings me constant joy — but has he saved me? Is he the sole reason that I’m able to smile again?
Nope — that 100% had to come from me.
In fact, for a long time, I was far too distraught to even think of romance. I simply didn’t have anything extra to give to anyone else.
And while a new romance might have been a welcome distraction from my sadness, a way to avoid the full onslaught of grief, I know that isn’t how it works. When life throws up trauma and stress, the only way through is to allow yourself to feel the emotion, to move through the process, step by step.
And it wasn’t romance that helped me do that: it was good old fashioned self-care.
As I worked through my grief, I remembered the power of my beloved self-care rituals and I embedded myself in them, using them to cope, to find clarity, peace, and self-love. I eventually reached a place where I had enough mental and emotional energy to be able to give more of myself. To allow myself to love.
That’s the beauty of self-care.
When you make time for self-care rituals, you begin to infuse every aspect of your life with more love and falling in love with yourself leads to a whole bunch of beautiful decisions. You find yourself taking more care over how you nourish your physical body and your mental health, over how you incorporate movement into your life, and over how you nourish those around you.
Over the past year I’ve found that — contradictory as it may sound — the more love you have for yourself, the more love you have to give away to the people that make your life special, whether that’s your partner, your family, your friends, or even your pets.
In fact, that’s why I’ve taken my favourite self-care rituals and used them as inspiration for an entire online community dedicated to filling life with beauty and love. Because, whatever life has thrown at you recently, you deserve to feel whole again. You deserve to find tiny reasons to smile, each and every day. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in the Mimosa Online Sanctuary, and I’d love for you to join me there.
Treat yourself to a date this Valentine’s.
So this Valentine’s Day, don’t forget to show yourself some love. Of course we’d love to invite you to the salon for an indulgent massage or facial, or welcome you to the Sanctuary, but don’t forget that self-care and self-love can be found in the tiniest of moments, like getting up in time to watch the sunrise while you enjoy your favourite coffee, or making time to catch up with a friend. Or even buying yourself a Valentine’s gift.
Work on loving yourself first this Valentine’s Day and watch as it spills over into every other part of your life.
Happy Valentine’s, gorgeous.
Jennie x