No matter how much effort you put into having the perfect Valentine’s Day, sometimes it seems the universe is against you. Maybe you’re sad about spending Valentine’s Day alone, or maybe your date fell way, way short of your high expectations. Either way, you find yourself sad on Valentine’s Day.

You might feel the urge to get yourself a tub of cookie dough ice cream and watch The Notebook, which sounds amazing, but listen to me here — it won’t make you feel better.

And, okay, maybe that is what you need to do for a solid two hours and four minutes. (Yes, I know the exact running time of The Notebook off the top of my head.) But then you need to remember that every second you spend upset, is a second lost from your life over (in my case) a stupid person. 

Today, I’m going to show you exactly how to snap out of the oh-so common Valentine’s Day depression. Consider it my “Valentine’s Day sad guide”.

Table of Contents

Step 1: Get off social media!

First things first, put your phone in a box, in a drawer, inside your closet, inside another room, lock the room and loose the key. (Unless you’re reading this on a phone, which in that case, finish reading and then come back to this.)

Give yourself a minimum of 24 hours for the Valentine’s parade of social media posts to pass through.

Now, let’s proceed to the rest of our Valentine’s Day sad guide.

No romantic movies

Movie storylines transport people out of their lives; they make us feel things we otherwise wouldn’t. And that’s because movies have little regard for the ordinary, and rather focus on the extraordinary. This can work against us on Valentine’s Day, so choose your movies carefully.