Happy Valentines Day!
On a day when we celebrate love and passion,
I think it is well and good to celebrate the ones we love. Sometimes couples need to be reminded that they are intentionally together.
So in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I want to make a proposal on bended knee. After the cards are exchanged, the candies poked on the underside to find out which ones has the best centers and the flowers are put into your favorite vase, why not take a time out to think about love in a different way?
I am not proposing that you share your thoughts with your honey. This is just between me and you. I am proposing giving yourself a Valentine of self-love and self-care. Today may not be the day you launch into a program of taking better care of yourself, but just for a minute will you allow yourself a thought that sometimes next week, you are going to schedule in some one on one time for yourself.
One of the hardest things on my daily list of things to do is to consciously practice a little self-care, self-nurturing for myself. 
If I do something specifically for me, I usually feel guilty about it. If I take time away from my husband, I feel strangely odd, even if it is something I am certain he would rather refrain from doing. (Fabric shopping comes to mind.) My mother is in her 70’s and is just now slowing down long enough to allow herself to gracefully take a nap in the middle of the day. Some days she even accomplishes this guilt free.
Then there is the fear of being perceived as selfish. Were you taught to be a good little girl and share and to not be selfish? Self-care is not about being selfish. If we are burning the candle at both ends, how can we share our light with our families?
Being selfish was almost as bad as bragging. I know we don’t brag here in blogland, but to me it is so refreshing to visit someone’s blog and there is a picture of a wonderful piece of artwork that someone has posted that says, “Hey look what I did!” I love that.
I know that self-care is hard and I don’t want this post to make anyone feel bad for not getting it done. Not beating myself up for not doing more is one way I can I can give myself a break. Self-acceptance is self-care. When I make peace with where I am, it is easier to move forward a little at a time. I read somewhere to not let doing what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do.
Just because you can’t send yourself to a week-long retreat shouldn’t stop you from taking yourself to a nice lunch with a good book for company.
I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I believe that creativity is a form of self-care and self-nurture. Doing what you love is a way to say to all the internal voices (and some external ones) that you are here on this earth and what you do has meaning. Your creativity is self-love self-expressed. I heart more of that.