During the month of February, quotes and puns about romantic love abound. From Hallmark cards to oversized bears to small cards with personalized inscriptions, Bible verses and saying about the beauty of love can be found everywhere. However, a few people have begun to reclaim Valentine’s day as a day not only of love for a romantic partner but also for oneself. Many instagrammers have taken up the mantle of body-positivity and self-care and demonstrated for their followers some practices in mindfulness, health, and joy that foster a love of oneself. Here are some quotes to help you love yourself this Valentine’s Day.
“If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” Fred Rogers
The universally beloved Fred Rogers wanted to make sure that all children knew they were loved and cared for. Rogers was a strong advocate for ensuring that children were well represented on television and was so passionate about ensuring good representation that he quit seminary school to pursue children’s TV programming full time. He wanted children to have positive role models and to be offered stability, love, acceptance, and a chance at happiness, whether they had one at home or not. To that end, Fred Rogers ensured that all his young viewers loved themselves. It’s easy for kids and young people to absorb blame for their difficult situations, but Fred Rogers wanted each child to know that there was something special inside each and every one of them.
“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance” Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was well known as a British playwright who enjoyed celebrating life. A romantic at heart with a reputation for the dramatic and absurd, Wilde always wrote about the joys and perils of falling in love and all the adventures that ensue when one pursues their passions. Wilde himself spent time in prison for pursuing one of his lovers and wrote plays, poems, and novels about the ins and outs of relationships. Loving oneself allows one to discover all the complicated parts and contradictions within oneself and unravel a tale that will take you on an incredible romance.
“Your task is not to seek for Love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” – Rumi
When one finally loves oneself, all the other barriers to loving other things, activities, and people also tend to fall away. It’s crucial that people love themselves, because when they do, their whole worlds open up before them.