The Date Yourself Jar: 40 Solo Dates for Your Self-Love Journey

Photo Credit: Ulta Beauty

You’re single and perhaps ready to mingle, but rather choosing to date yourself for now instead. You’ve seen endless women making their own “Date Yourself” Jars on TikTok, but where do you begin? And what do you even put in it?  Grab a jar, paper, pens and anything else you want to make the cutest jar the world’s ever seen with. Because now is the time to connect with yourself. Not only is it so important to have alone time and embrace being single, but it is also equally important to begin fostering a healthy relationship within and discover your most innate desires. After all, the most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself.

“You your own best thing… You are.”

Beloved, Toni Morrison

You don't have to be in a relationship to celebrate Valentine's Day. In fact, you can catch your own arrow from cupid and dedicate the day and the rest of the year to dating yourself instead. Perhaps, the date is simply putting the jar together.  Or…. one of the ideas below:

1. Bake yourself a Valentine Treat (you deserve it!)

2. Buy yourself flowers

3. Take a mental health day

4. Make at-Home S’mores (yum!)

5. Complete a TikTok challenge and actually post it

6. Go somewhere and do a mini photoshoot of yourself

7. Try a new makeup look

8. Restock on your favorites from Ulta

9. Spend the night out of town

10. Take a trip to the beach

11. Be a photographer for the day in an undiscovered part of your city

12. Make a new playlist and go for a late-night drive

13. Buy a new plant

14. Netflix, unplug and relax

15. At-home paint and sip (don’t forget to buy paint supplies!)

16. Visit an art gallery

17. Get cute and go to your favorite bar

18. Drive-in movie

19. Journal about your dream life

20. Bubble bath + candles

21. Spa Day

22. Splurge on a new outfit

23. Have lunch at your favorite restaurant

24. Try a local cooking class

25. Try a local tequila tasting

26. Get dressed up and try a restaurant you’ve never been to

27. Get your hair done

28. Baby, be a window shopper… and go to the mall

29. At-home DIY project

30. Get up early and take yourself out to breakfast

31. Take your favorite book to a coffee shop

32. Try a new fitness class

33. Go for a walk

34. Listen to a new podcast

35. Book a random flight somewhere new

36. Old School R&B and Clean

37. At-Home Wine Tasting

38. Go hiking

39. Go to a concert alone

40. Light candles, put on some music, and put yourself to bed (wink wink!)

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Adia R. Louden is a first-year doctoral student in Maternal and Child Health at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.