Season of Love

February is often considered a month of love, as Valentine’s Day has become known as a holiday to celebrate all those you love. Love for your significant other, your friends, family, and especially yourself. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful emotions a human can experience is love. Love is found all around you: in sunshine on a cloudy day, in a note left by a friend, a warm cup of hot chocolate after a hard day, from a hug, in a laugh. It can be easy to miss, especially when we’re caught up in all the other emotions. Stress from work, anxiety from school, loneliness, sadness, etc. Human beings are complicated creatures and love is one of the most complicated emotions, which may be why we’re so drawn to it.

Anyways, as we slowly exit the last month of winter and begin to enter spring, I hope to warm your spirits with some lovely suggestions to add more love into your life. Some of these are date ideas (platonic or romantic), some are self-care suggestions, others are hints to help you notice the love that already surrounds you.

In the chilly, snow-covered hills of Vermont, warmth can be hard to find. For those who don’t mind braving the cold, skiing (cross-country or Nordic) is always a fun adventure. Winter hiking isn’t something to be intimidated by, as anyone with a good pair of gators and yak-traks plus a couple layers of clothing can trek any trail that they could in the summer. Sledding, whether on conventional sleds or cardboard boxes, is a great way to embrace your inner child and have some fun. If still want to do something active but you’re deterred by the weather, try a yoga studio, hit up the gym, or go for a swim at an indoor pool.

Be a tourist in your own town and go to the most popular sites during the off-season. The lines are much shorter and you may find out something cool about your town that you didn’t know before.

For those who favor more indoor activities, museums are great for art and history buffs and a lot of places have discounts or are free to the public. Movies or concerts are always a fun time and have lots of different genres to entertain all sorts of folks. Read a good book with a cup of tea. Going to a café and talking with friends, writing doing homework, or doodling passersbys is often how I spend my Sunday afternoons. Game nights with board games and music are fun with a group of friends, craft nights with pizza and paints, or hold a ‘secret Santa swap’ after people do their spring cleaning with all recycled items. I love getting a group together and asking everyone to bring a dish to pass to form an impromptu potluck (bonus points if it’s a themed dinner). The possibilities are really endless. It doesn’t really matter what you do as much as who you do it with.

While Valentine’s Day can be a nice holiday to spread the love, it can also beckon feelings of loneliness for some. Being single or going alone for a while is nothing to feel bad or be ashamed about. Self-care and self-love are extremely important as well. It’s not always the easiest thing, but it is vital to mental health and confidence. It’s important to be kind to yourself, which can look like a lot of different things depending on the person.

Some people like their quiet time, others need lots of human interactions. Sleep, nutrition, and taking time to move your body are all things we constantly hear are important for health because they’re true. Other common forms of self-care are taking a bath, cooking a nice meal, making something with chocolate, listening to a podcast, and so on. At the heart of all of these things is the idea of taking time for you. Nowadays, it’s so easy to get caught up in everything else that’s going on around you that you forget to take a moment for yourself. Even if you just take a pause in your day, take a deep breath, let it out, and recenter-that simple act of noticing the air moving through your lungs and the beating of your heart can be a form of self-care.

I hope you’re able to find warmth in this stretch of winter, whether in the presence of others or within your own heart. Take time to notice the love around you and celebrate all of the beautiful moments present in your life. Warm wishes, an Adventurous Aquarius.