For many singles, Valentine’s Day can be the loneliest and most difficult day of the year. Connie Wetzell, co-author of the new book The YOU Plan: A Christian Woman’s Guide for a Happy Healthy Life After Divorce, encourages singles to think of Valentine’s Day as a day to show love in general.
Here are 10 tips that you as a single person can use to survive Valentine’s Day:
1. Invite some of your single friends over. Make it special. Have them each bring a dish to share and a small gift to exchange. Give each guest a single rose.
2. If you have children or grandchildren, order pizza and plan a special game or movie night.
3. You might know someone that’s in need—perhaps an elderly person that’s home alone. Reach out to them. Bring a meal and spend some time with them.
4. You may know a couple that has small children. Offer to babysit so that they can have a night out.
5. There are often dinners, dances and other events planned for singles on Valentine’s Day. Check your local paper or nearby churches for happenings in your town. Don’t stay home. Go and have a good time.
6. Do something nice for yourself. Buy yourself flowers or that item that you have had your eye on at the mall. Or schedule a little pampering, like a massage, facial, manicure or pedicure.
7. If you can’t afford to pamper yourself, do it at home. Listen to some great music, take a bubble bath, light candles, drink tea, eat chocolate and curl up with a good book or watch a movie. Or, if you’re really feeling ready and adventurous, this might be the day to create your profile and sign yourself up for a reputable dating website.
8. Plan something you would like to do later in the year, like a weekend getaway with a friend, that new hiking trail you’ve wanted to try, a dance or cooking class, etc. Give yourself something you can look forward to.
9. Call your parents, siblings or other close family members. Tell them how much you love and appreciate them. Relationships don’t always last. Family is forever.
10. Count all your blessings and actually write them down. When you see all the good that’s going on in your life, you won’t feel so deprived on Valentine’s Day. Then get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow will be here before you know it.
Connie Wetzell’s new book, The YOU Plan: A Christian Woman’s Guide for a Happy Healthy Life After Divorce, is a woman-to-woman, faithful and hopeful approach to topics like acceptance, forgiveness, loneliness, online dating, sex, money, finding friends and caring for your physical, financial and spiritual health. Co-authored by Michelle Borquez, it is available now wherever books are sold. For more information, visit the official website at www.YouPlanBook.com.
Janet Perez Eckles 
Shawn Akers 
Abby Trivett 
