Valentine's Day is arguably the worst time of the year to be single, since everywhere you look, you're told you need romantic love in order to be happy. However, the #30DaysofSelfLove campaign is changing that notion and setting out to make self-love as common as selfies.
The movement was created by YouTube user Sarah Kargas, who wanted to see how she would change after she spent 30 days engaged in conscious self-love practices. She made a video everyday and documented how she was feeling and personal affirmations. She looked into the camera and said things like "You are beautiful," "You are accepting and deserving of all the great things," and "I love you," all to herself, every single day.
What started out as a personal project turned into a massive online movement, as her videos started to receive tens of thousands of views. As more people started to take the challenge for themselves, it was apparent how necessary this sort of campaign was. Kargas responded to her quickly-growing fan base and created an iOS app and compiled an e-book, making it easy for others to partake in the 30 day challenge.
"Everyone has his or her own journey. This is just an avenue to find love and find yourself in your own way and whatever comes out, it comes out. I’m giving this process to the people. It’s all about self-therapy.”
The app is designed to make it simple and easy to participate in the challenge, as well as connect with others all over the world who are doing the same. All you have to do is create a free and private account and record yourself for a 30 day period of your choosing saying "I love you." You will also receive daily affirmations from the app, in order to keep you motivated. You can choose to also connect your videos to social media accounts (or not) and also view others videos and comment on their progress (or not).
The e-book that also accompanies the app, Wake Up and Choose YOU: 30 Inspirational Stories of Self-Discovery, is a compilation of 30 participants self-love journey's. The book profiles each person's struggles that lead them to this challenge and the inspiration and strength they gained from partaking in it. I can tell you that each of these stories is extremely heartfelt after reading the ebook and are proof that this concept is resonating with people. At the end of the book, there is information about the app and how you can start the challenge for yourself, which you'll want to after seeing how it's changed so many people's lives.
The motto of the #30DaysofSelfLove movement is "Wake up and choose you!" which is a great way to approach Valentine's day, for us singletons. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself or depressed because you don't have a date this Saturday, I encourage you to choose yourself. Seriously, we are always telling other people how much we love and appreciate them, so why aren't we doing this for ourselves? I can tell you from experience that nurturing yourself is the best way to combat insecurity and pain.
If you want to commit to loving yourself this Valentine's day, check out the website, which details more information about the movement, app, and ebook.
Images: Getty (1), 30daysofselflove/Instagram (2)
