{"id":357,"date":"2011-02-07T10:20:33","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T10:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html"},"modified":"2011-03-22T22:35:37","modified_gmt":"2011-03-22T22:35:37","slug":"a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html","title":{"rendered":"A New Way to Celebrate Valentine&#8217;s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve had maybe one Valentine my whole life, so naturally I&#8217;ve had an odd relationship with this holiday. Some years, I tolerated it. Other years I ignored it altogether. And then there were those college years when I loathed it&#8230; like the &#8220;Grinch Who Stole Valentine&#8217;s Day&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>However, within the last few years, I&#8217;ve decided to embrace it. Yes, it&#8217;s a day for romantic love, but it could mean so much more.<\/p>\n<p>For me, Valentine&#8217;s Day is when I make my boldest moves of the year. It&#8217;s the day I decide to leap. For example, last year, I vowed to stop straightening my hair and, for the first time since birth, let my curls go wild and free. This year, I&#8217;m moving into my dream downtown apartment. It&#8217;s all about showing yourself the grandest display of love and affirmation that you can do all year long. At least, that&#8217;s how I see it.<\/p>\n<p>If love and romance haven&#8217;t treated you right, may I suggest a new approach? Do something grand for yourself this year. I&#8217;m not talking about sending yourself flowers or going to a nice dinner. I mean, go big! At the very least, you&#8217;ll remember Valentine&#8217;s Day for more than watching romantic comedies in your pajamas.<\/p>\n<p>So, think about it. What&#8217;s the thing you&#8217;ve been holding off on doing? Where&#8217;s the place you&#8217;ve always wanted to go? Is this the year to go back to school? Start your own business? Make it happen on Valentine&#8217;s Day. What a great way to show yourself some love.<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/dealing-with-holiday-grief.html\"><em><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/dealing-with-holiday-grief.html\"><em>Read the follow-up on Loss and Loneliness on Valentine&#8217;s Day<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve had maybe one Valentine my whole life, so naturally I&#8217;ve had an odd relationship with this holiday. Some years, I tolerated it. Other years I ignored it altogether. And then there were those college years when I loathed it&#8230; like the &#8220;Grinch Who Stole Valentine&#8217;s Day&#8221;. However, within the last few years, I&#8217;ve decided&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17,4,23,20,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happier-you","category-holidays","category-inspiring-messages","category-love","category-something-to-think-about","category-your-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A New Way to Celebrate Valentine&#039;s Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A New Way to Celebrate Valentine&#039;s Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve had maybe one Valentine my whole life, so naturally I&#8217;ve had an odd relationship with this holiday. Some years, I tolerated it. Other years I ignored it altogether. And then there were those college years when I loathed it&#8230; like the &#8220;Grinch Who Stole Valentine&#8217;s Day&#8221;. However, within the last few years, I&#8217;ve decided&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-07T10:20:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-03-22T22:35:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jennifer E. Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A New Way to Celebrate Valentine's Day","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A New Way to Celebrate Valentine's Day","og_description":"I&#8217;ve had maybe one Valentine my whole life, so naturally I&#8217;ve had an odd relationship with this holiday. Some years, I tolerated it. Other years I ignored it altogether. And then there were those college years when I loathed it&#8230; like the &#8220;Grinch Who Stole Valentine&#8217;s Day&#8221;. However, within the last few years, I&#8217;ve decided&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2011-02-07T10:20:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-03-22T22:35:37+00:00","author":"Jennifer E. Jones","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html","name":"A New Way to Celebrate Valentine's Day","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-07T10:20:33+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-22T22:35:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/e680796dc5bb5e0def813d26fc7ac148"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/02\/a-new-way-to-celebrate-valentines-day.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A New Way to Celebrate Valentine&#8217;s Day"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/","name":"Inspiration Report","description":"Inspiration News, Life Advice and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/e680796dc5bb5e0def813d26fc7ac148","name":"Jennifer E. Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/538\/5388855270a03493105edfa3ec01cb16x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/538\/5388855270a03493105edfa3ec01cb16x96.jpg","caption":"Jennifer E. Jones"},"description":"Jennifer E. Jones is a writer, editor and Web producer. She has written for entertainment, trade and inspirational organizations for nearly 15 years. She has a Master of Education and a Master of Journalism degree from Regent University. However, her greatest skill is crushing anyone in a game of \"Name That Tune.\" In her spare time, she is an amateur home chef, a rock star marathon runner and wannabe novelist.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/jjones"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}