The New Age Guide to Self Love
Valentine’s Day is historically a time to spend focusing on relationships and the love you share with another person. But this year, why not spend some time cultivating and drawing on the love you have for yourself? Self love can take many forms depending on what’s important to you, whether it’s cooking your favorite meal or giving yourself a quiet moment to read your favorite book. If you’re looking for a special way to celebrate yourself this weekend, there are so many ways to craft a new ritual for self love. From crystals to tea to flowers to meditations, here’s a guide to giving yourself a Valentine’s weekend devoted to self love.
Crystals for Self Love
You can use healing crystals for meditation by holding them, placing them nearby or setting them on chakras that need unblocking or a bit of extra love. You can also benefit from their energy just by keeping them in your home in the areas you spend the most time.
Rose quartz is one of the most popular crystals to promote self-love. It has a strong connection to the heart chakra and having some around will remind you to be softer with yourself, making it the perfect crystal to pick up before Valentine’s day. Its nurturing vibrations are sure to nourish and soften your spirit, restoring any weariness.
Rhodochrosite is a stone for compassion and can be used to generate healing love both inward and outward. Using it in your practice can help you relate more towards yourself, forgive yourself for your mistakes, and help move on from scars of the past.
Amethyst is a stone that tends to connect us to a higher, more spiritual plane. Tapping into this energy can help you feel more calm and peaceful, generating more self esteem and self love. It can be especially useful for furthering meditation practices because it encourages you to wade out of the everyday lower-level concerns and look higher.
Use this Valentine’s Day as a chance to fall in love with yourself. Red Jasper is connected to your root chakra, giving you a strong sense of grounding and connecting you to your truest, deepest self.
Amazonite is a crystal that increases confidence and self esteem and surrounding yourself with a piece of it can wrap you in a blanket of assurance and comfort. It’s also a great stone for dispelling anxiety.
Essential Oils for Self Love
Whether diffused, put in a bath, or rubbed on the wrists and temples, there are a lot of ways to incorporate essential oils into your daily self-care routine. Roses have always had a symbolic connection to love and romance, and for good reason. Both the scent and the taste of roses hold incredible warmth and power for us, helping lift our spirits and our confidence while cleansing us of negativity.
Bergamot encourages hope and self-acceptance and can help you tap into your deeper inner courage. It helps clear away emotional pain leaving you clear and full of self assurance.
Every self love routine should include a little love for your physical body. In essential oil form, grapefruit can help awaken you to physical sensations and make you more aware of your body, telling it that you’re checked into it and care about it.
Sweet Orange is one of the most uplifting scents and can provide a boost of energy and esteem especially if you’ve been feeling stagnant or low.
Teas for Self Love
Tea can be a special ritual to promote growth and healing wherever you need it. While many shops can provide specialty blends, simple boxes available in grocery stores can be just as magical if you know where to look. Hibiscus or rose tea with a bit of honey makes for the perfect blend of love in a cup. Chamomile is a comforting dose of self love. Passionfruit tea can help ignite and engage your deeper passion and zest for life. Jasmine tea is often known for its ability to draw and grow spiritual love and connect you to higher vibrations.
If you’re more inclined to shop for tea blends (or make your own), artist and occultist Katelan Foisy has several tea recommendations for different emotional needs and intentions (you can see her full article here). For self love, she recommends: “Hibiscus, roses, rosemary, cinnamon, nutmeg, and some mint. Put a little honey in it and honestly it does taste like love.” This recipe from Good Witch Kitchen is similar, using many warm, delectable ingredients to form a “love potion” that will give you a moment to restore and reflect.
Decorating Your Spaces
We often decorate and embellish our spaces for special occasions and romantic dates, so why not keep that energy for celebrating ourselves as well?
Flowers are one of the most romantic gestures we have in our culture; picking up a bouquet or two of certain flowers can be a beautiful way to promote self love. Roses are the most common symbol for love and getting a gorgeous bouquet or a garland to hang around your space this weekend might make your whole area feel fresh and full of love. If you’ve never been one for pink or red, you can also decorate your space with bright and beautiful sunflowers that boost your space and emanate pure love. Delicate blue forget-me-nots are a symbol of eternal love and devotion and will also amplify the loving vibes you’re summoning.
Candles are also an easy way to fill a space with a soft and loving aura. Using candles with scents like bergamot, roses, lilac or whatever scent makes you feel the most at home. You can also buy a self love candle from a specialty shop like House of Intuition or Art of the Root filled with essential oil blends and crystals and promote the ritual even further.
Baths
Taking a long bath is an act of self-care no matter what, setting time for yourself away from the rest of the world to soak in the love. There are a few scents and ingredients you can add to boost the positive affirmations and make it into a special occasion, whether it’s a simple bath bomb, a few drops of your chosen essential oil, or even following a luxurious bath recipe.
For maximum love, Katelan recommends making a milk bath and filling it with rose petals, honey, lavender and orange peel. You can create a milk bath using regular milk, goat’s milk or coconut milk or even just mixing instant dry milk powder into your bath after it’s drawn.
A Meditation for Self Love
If you’re busy or just running low on time or energy, there are also very simple ways to instill your Valentine’s Day with self love. If nothing else, you can spend 12 minutes recommitting to a loving, compassionate, and empathetic relationship with yourself over the course of this short self love meditation.
The most important element of self love is simply making time to care for yourself as much as you would for any loved one. Whether this means a moment for quiet, some aromatherapy or a warm bath, I hope you find time this weekend to prioritize your most important relationship: the one you have with yourself.