Audio Script
Alone on Valentine鈥檚 Day? What to do?
Feb. 13, 2015听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Glenda Russell
听听听听听听听听听听听 The reminders are everywhere -- candy hearts and roses displayed prominently in grocery stores. Radio and TV ads for jewelry and chocolates are broadcast daily. They鈥檙e reminders that it鈥檚 time to spoil your sweetheart on Valentine鈥檚 Day.
听听听听听听听听听听听 But what if you鈥檙e single and feeling left out? How do you handle Valentine鈥檚 Day alone? The answer? Find others just like you and do something fun together, says CU-Boulder counselor and psychologist Glenda Russell.
CUT 1 鈥淥ne of the things you can do is go look for people who need company on Valentine鈥檚 Day.听 Find them and do something together.听 Make it fun - go to a movie together, go to dinner together, go for a run together -(:12) do something that the two of you or the three of you or the four of you could genuinely enjoy. 听And help each other.鈥� (:19)
听听听听听听听听听听听 Russell says, if you are single and feel left out because you don鈥檛 have a companion on Valentine鈥檚 Day, take a moment to reflect and realize that being alone is OK.
CUT 2 鈥淔or people who are alone, the first question I think they need to ask themselves - is what message they鈥檙e giving themselves about the meaning of them being alone?听 Often times people get into catastrophizing messages about, 鈥榯his means I am not loveable, this means I am never going to be loved, this means it鈥檚 the end of the world.鈥� Well almost never does it mean any of those things. (:20) In fact, what it usually means is right now I am not in a relationship. That鈥檚 a far cry from this sense that this has huge momentous negative implications for my happiness today and forever.听 It doesn鈥檛.听 It just means you鈥檙e alone now.鈥� (:29)听
听听听听听听听听听听 Russell says another thing a single person can do to feel involved on Valentine鈥檚 Day is to do something for someone else you care about.
CUT 3 鈥淰alentine鈥檚 Day is a great day to send a card to your grandmother. Valentine鈥檚 day is a great day to send an email to somebody with whom you went to high school and say, 鈥業鈥檓 thinking about you because you were really special in my life.鈥� (836) And doing that, literally, just doing one of those things, takes the edge off the anxiety of Valentine鈥檚 Day and it also takes the edge off of that loss that you feel, that some people feel, if they鈥檙e not involved in some big romantic relationship over Valentine鈥檚 Day.鈥� (:31)
听听听听听听听听听听 Alone or not from a commercial standpoint, Americans spend more on Valentine鈥檚 Day than on any other holiday. According to the National Retail Federation, this year Americans are expected to spend $18.9 billion on candy, balloons, paper cards and other tokens of love.
-CU-