Find Your Love Language & Celebrate Valentine’s, Galentine’s, Pal-entine’s, and Self-Love Day!
Modern Valentine’s Day celebrations are a far cry away from the origins of Valentine’s Day, and are now expected to be exceedingly more gentle and romantic. However, Valentine’s Day has a bad reputation. While it is supposed to be a day that celebrates relationships, it is often a day of strict social and economic expectations. While it’s often unintentional, love is being measured by how nice your gift is: is your partner devoted? Well, they did buy me a lot of gifts!
It’s madness! It doesn’t accurately describe or measure a person’s feelings, and it’s often not what is needed in a relationship anyways.
It's also important to acknowledge that Valentine’s Day celebrations are incredibly limiting! We should be able to celebrate love in its entirety, instead a mere celebration of being in a relationship. Our value should not be attached to our relationship status, and that does not qualify the love a person has in their life! Love takes many forms and those are just as worthy (if not more so) of celebration!
As a company full of strong warrior women (and several Leslie Knope fans), we decided we had to celebrate Galentine’s Day in our office! We swapped gifts and unwrapped them together, acknowledging the connections and friendships on our team - something so important to all of us!
It is our opinion that this time should truly be about love, in all forms. Whether you are romantically entwined, chilling with your gals and/or pals, or spending quality time with yourself, we hope you celebrate love this weekend.
But first, you should dive into better understanding your Valentine’s Day date! Whether it is a night of romantic, platonic, or self-love, take the 5 Love Languages Quizzes to find out what your love language is!
Keep reading for date ideas for each love language.
1. Words of Affirmation:
These are verbal expressions that affirm love, attention, affection, and/ or appreciation. If this is your love language, you thrive on your loved ones showing their feelings by stating them, and genuine, thoughtful compliments go a long way with you. Insults and “the silent treatment” are particularly offensive to people with this love language.
Date Idea:
Skin Deep Card Games: “Meaningful questions to explore your connections: deepen your relationships by asking questions you’re dying to know but afraid to ask”. This card game is ideal for those who thrive on verbal communication, who want to have a genuine conversation where each participant shares their true feelings and insights. They have games for couples and friends at all stages, and they even have a “Self” card game to “nurture, navigate, and get to know your inner self”.
2. Receiving Gifts:
This love language isn’t about materialism, you are simply delighted to know that someone was thoughtful and generous enough to show how important you are to them. This can be tangible and intangible, a gift could be an experience as well as an item. A person with this love language may feel unvalued if their loved ones are careless with their gestures or forget to honor a special moment, like a birthday or anniversary.
Date Idea:
If you and/or your partner rejoices in receiving gifts, you can always go with a traditional Valentine’s Day, with whatever tastes demand! Of course you can always create your gift with arts and crafts, these gifts could be considered even more thoughtful to give and receive! However gifts don’t have to be tangible, you can give an experience as well. Whether it is an at-home spa day, where you light a candle, fill up the tub, and hand over some champagne or a Harry Potter movie marathon, the options are truly endless. The most important thing to remember is to be intentional and thoughtful, truly consider who this person is and what would benefit them, in a real way. If you have a self-date for V-Day, it’s time for some “treat yo self”/ Self-Care time! Gift yourself with something that has stayed in your cart and don’t feel guilty for doing it!
3. Acts of Service:
“Actions speak louder than words”... If you determine a person’s commitment and/or emotions based on their actions, this is your love language. If this is your love language, you enjoy when people do things for you because you deeply appreciate the time and effort that person took to make your life better. This could be your partner or roommate cooking one of your favorite dinners to lift your spirits after a long day, taking up a responsibility that has been stressing you out, or just doing something for you purely out of love. As you see these thoughtful actions as displays of love, you may be bothered by people seeing their efforts as obligatory.
Date Idea:
This is about filling a need: What needs to be done? What will make my/their life better? This can be cooking dinner, cleaning the house, or a massage! Understand present wants and needs, then supply solutions and joys. Take care of yourself and your loved ones while showing adoration along the way!
4. Quality Time:
People in this love language want undivided attention, no distractions and no distanced behavior! This doesn’t mean that you can’t Netflix and chill, but avoid zoning out or binge watching (unless you’re making an event out of it- with conversations about plot holes and theories!). When loved ones neglect those moments of actively being with you, it can make you feel as if whatever else they’re doing instead is more important to them.
Date Idea:
This is about more than simply allotting an appropriate amount of time for your date, but staying in the moment, showing your dedication and interest. Eliminate all distractions and you can’t go wrong, as long as you're being intentional! Maybe watch a cooking show and then recreate the dinner together or practice a hobby that you both enjoy! If this weekend is about self-love, this may take the form of simply doing something out of pure enjoyment and basking in that joy.
5. Physical Touch
This love language is for people who find physical connection, whether romantic or platonic, to be the most fulfilling way to receive love. Often confused as sexual or romantic, this love language is actually not over-the-top PDA, but more of a comfort in physical expression (hugs and pats on the back are certainly great examples!). People with a physical touch love language will feel lonely and isolated if they are not receiving these types of expressions, regardless of the verbal affirmations or gifts given to them.
Date Idea:
We’re in a pandemic so I’m not going to pretend that this is possible for everyone, but if it is, it’s as straightforward as it gets! This all about making your feelings known in a physical sense. However intention is also very important here. For example, don’t just give your friend a quick one-armed hug, use both arms and squeeze! As far as date ideas go, these are unlimited as long as you are being physically present and affectionate! I recommend making sure wherever you are you feel comfortable to be your most affectionate selves. This could be a date night at home scenario even! Maybe a more lavish homemade meal & making a fort to watch movies and cuddle in for the rest of the evening.