So I’m slightly late to the party, but apparently there is something called Madly In Love With Me Day, celebrated February 13 (I suppose it’s to offset depression in single girls who long for Mr. Right, but please forgive that not-PC musing). If you sign up (upper right corner of the homepage) for the email list, you’ll get redirected to a thank you page with a 21-page PDF “kit” you can download, or click here.

The booklet (I printed it 2 pages to a sheet of paper, then cut and stapled the pages together) is bright yellow and pink with mostly black text, and quite honestly reminds me of the magazines I read as a teenager, saying things like “Romantic Date for One Please” and “Love all of yourself, even the not-so-pretty parts.” But over all the message is one all women need, and I think if you cut through the tone you’ll find some good content.

The site peddles quite a few products, and I’m not advocating them at all – I haven’t tried them and I don’t intend to. But if you’re interested that’s up to you.

ANYWAY. I got way off track here. The point is, anything that can help me learn to love myself more is worth a shot. Some of the ideas in the booklet sound really interesting, like writing a letter to myself at a younger or older age. When I turned 20 I made a time capsule that included a letter to myself at age 25, and I opened it on my 25th birthday. My husband (we were dating at the time) and I bought Subway sandwiches and had a picnic at the park where I went to day camp as a child, and as I looked at everything in my time capsule I explained to him the significance of it all. It was great for me to remember who I was five years before that, and it was also interesting to him to learn more about who I was before I met him, and how that shaped the woman I had become. I wanted to do another time capsule then, to be opened in another 5 years, but never got around to it. I’m starting to rethink that idea…

I found out about Madly in Love with Me Day at Sara’s blog, and she has way more ideas and links. The one I like best is writing Self-Love gratitudes. Since I haven’t written in my gratitude journal yet for February 13 (I am posting this, writing that, then going to bed), I am going to write my 5 gratitudes of the day about my body. That’s not going to be easy, but I think it’s important. Maybe this will be a new feature for me, periodically choosing a theme for my daily gratitudes.