Oh, my darling Valentine

Valentine’s Day. A topic that comes up in my coaching work every year, for better or for worse. 

Love is a complicated topic, no matter who that love is directed at. Whether it’s self-love, romantic love, platonic love, or familial love, it’s very intricate!

This Valentine’s Day, I wanted to focus this newsletter on what I believe to be the most neglected form of love: self-love. 

Self-love has become very complicated in our society. If you do love yourself, you’re perceived as egotistical, overconfident, and pushy. If you don’t, you’re seen as weak, insecure, and small. We’re told that no one will love us if we don’t love ourselves, but also told that accepting love from others can help us love ourselves. There are 1000s of ads on social media that promise to give you the “trick” to loving yourself, followed by posts that highlight things you should be insecure about. It’s all just impossible. 

I encourage you to ignore it all. That’s right - ignore it. And listen to yourself. We are all born knowing how to love ourselves - if we weren’t, we would never make friends in primary school, and we wouldn’t know playground etiquette. We are born knowing how to love ourselves, and society often raises us out of it. 

Go back to your roots. What did little you love about yourself? What made you an awesome friend to have on the playground? Do those parts of yourself need some kindness and nurturance? 

Loving yourself is hard. But it doesn’t have to be. 

If you find yourself needing someone to help you along this journey, schedule a free consultation with me. I can’t sell you a quick fix like Instagram can - but I can promise you that working with a dedicated coach will allow you to reach your full self-love potential - and that it’ll stick. 

Much love, 

Dr. Jain