What is Love?

February is loud about love. Hearts everywhere. Chocolates. Flowers. The reminder to treat yourself. And as women, especially as moms, we’re really good at translating that message into certain kinds of actions. We call those actions"self-love."

So how do we love ourselves? Well, in all honesty, we consume. We never miss the hair appointment or the Botox. We buy the makeup, the peels, the masks. We invest in the supplements, the detoxes, the cleanses. And if all that doesn't quite hit, we scroll, shop, sip, or medicate, just trying to soothe. If we track back through the decades, every generation of women has had their own vices for coping with the overwhelm that accompanies the incredible blessing of motherhood.

None of these things are inherently "wrong." Many of them can do the trick from time to time. But here’s the quiet truth we don’t talk about enough: These things do not, even if all combined, add up to true, real, unshakable self-love.

The Most Radical Form of Self‑Love is Boring AF

Ladies, we can't get self-love at Ulta. We won't find it on Amazon, at the liquor store, or from our injector at the Med Spa. It's not on the Alo website. Here's the Truth: The kind of self-love women are after, the kind that creates confidence through action, the stuff so powerful that it touches every area of our lives - that kind of elite level sh^t is absolutely... basic. Yep. It is completely UNSEXY.

Here is what it looks like:

• Eating protein forward, repeat meals that nourish and fuel

• Having awareness + understanding around nutritional goals

• Drinking water instead of another cocktail

• Going to bed when we'd rather scroll

• Walking every friggin' day, even when it's freezing

• Lifting real weights in basic ways to actually get stronger + build shape

• Taking responsibility for our health instead of outsourcing it to another bullsh*t product

This kind of love doesn’t come in pretty packaging. But it compounds.

And it changes everything.

This February, Choose a Different Kind of Love

By all means, let's keep it cute. Let's cover our grays. Let's paralyze the hell out of our foreheads. Let's get our nails done. Let's all go float around in a salt bath.

But for God's sake, don’t confuse decoration with devotion. Those things are short-term fixes that cannot, even on their best days, compete with the basics that actually move the needle.

The most powerful way we can show ourselves love is by holding ourselves to a higher standard. Putting ourselves through discomfort so we can actually grow and change?

That's the kind of love that lasts.