With Valentine’s Day coming up in a few days, many people are already brainstorming ideas on how to make their loved ones feel special. Every year, millions of people mark this holiday with grand gestures aimed at proving their undying love and appreciation for their romantic partners.
It is, therefore, not surprising that many people feel a lot of pressure to perform on this specific day. This is especially true for singles, recently divorced individuals and those dealing with the death of a spouse. If you happen to fall into any of these categories, Valentine’s Day is a holiday that you will likely find very dreary. This because the thought of being alone on this highly celebrated day can be very depressing and even unbearable to most people.
However, this doesn’t have to be the case. While some people compensate for the loneliness of Valentine’s Day by showing love to themselves, celebrating the meaningful friendships in their lives or even performing random acts of kindness to strangers, it is also fine to simply feel sad on Valentine’s Day.
Why It’s Okay to feel sad on Valentine’s Day
If you are lonely on Valentine’s Day, you might feel overwhelmed seeing everyone happy, smiling and generally having a great time with their loved ones. This might make you even more depressed about your situation.
The truth of the matter, however, is that it is simply not possible or realistic to feel happy all the time. So, if you feel sad on this day of celebration, you need to acknowledge and validate your feelings of despondency to yourself in order to make peace with them. Some of the ideas that might help you cope with your feelings include meditating, writing down your feelings in a journal and listening to music that resonates with how you feel. If you need to cry in order to release your feelings, that’s okay too.
Just try as much as possible to not let these feelings control you to the extent that you start reminiscing about negative experiences, which might cause you to make bad decisions like stalking your ex or shutting yourself off from the people who love and care about you.
Get to the Root of the Problem
You should realize that Valentine’s Day is just a day like any other, which means it comes, passes and is soon forgotten until the next one comes. However, the feelings that this holiday elicits in you are very real and valid, which is why you need to get to the root of the problem. It is, therefore, important for you to conduct a self-evaluation and reflect on why you may be feeling the way you do. Perhaps you simply miss the person you used to be with or maybe you are just too hypercritical of yourself. Whatever the reason for your sadness, you need to get to the bottom of it through honest reflection and introspection. It’s as simple as that!