Happy Valentine's Day! This year I've decided to be my own Valentine. I kicked off the weekend by watching The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on campus last Friday night. I LOVED IT! It was my first time to watch it and had no idea what to expect coming in. Yesterday's breakfast was nut butter & blueberry pancakes (festive & dee-lish-cious). My mother & I are off to visit the farmer's market, grab lunch and watch Room later this morning.

Gimme all the sunflower seed buttah!!!

Honestly, I'm not the biggest fan of this "holiday." (Let's share the love all-day everyday people!) It does, however, give me a valid excuse to use my heart-shaped pancake mold. And I do love the pun-ny meme cards that circulate the Interweb this time of the year. Do y'all know what I'm talking about? Here's a great PG-rated one (hehe):

Image from here

My biggest problem isn't seeing all the lovey-dovey couple posts on my Instagram feed (that's just the bitter old lady in me); I struggle the most with how it's not socially acceptable to be our own Valentine on a daily basis. Our world has negatively equated self-love for selfishness. Do you remember that mirror scene in Mean Girls where Cady doesn't see anything wrong with her body and the Plastics pressure her into saying something wrong with her?

GIF from here

What's wrong with loving who you are? Why can't we be proud of our strengths, our bodies, our beauty, our brains, ourselves? Why does it make us egotistical to simply thank people when they compliment us? Why do we say nice things only because we want to hear something amazing about ourselves in return?

I used to think taking time for myself and being proud of who I was meant I was self-centered. But now I can honestly and freely say I love myself--flaws and all!!! I've decided to start a new series on the blog called Self-Love Sunday to continue my journey and spread the love. I'll be sharing all sorts of inspiration/stories/links/ramblings/etc. on accepting and relishing who you are. Hope you stay tuned!

Questions:
What are your Valentine's Day plans? 
Have you seen any good movies recently?
Thoughts on self-love?