To all the singles on Valentine's Weekend

Unless you're living under a rock, you're being bombarded with ads, love posts and cheesy red hearts all around you and for single people, this weekend might be their personal idea of hell.

If you're one of those, we hope this weekend passes by quickly like a bad dream. We understand it's easier said than done to 'just put the phone away'. You deserve some love too, you deserve happiness and you want to be celebrated as well.

Well we don't have a magic formula to make this weekend go any faster but we did reach out to our instagram community and who were happy to share with you some words of wisdom:

This is an important one! What you see on social media, does not necessarily mean it's real! Of course we wish all couples to be happy, but relationships are ultimately made out of human beings who make mistakes and are far from perfect. That one single moment of a happy couple on your social media could very well just be a very short happy moment in a lifetime of misery.

We can never stop saying this. You don't need another human being in your life to be happy. Of course we are social beings and we need warmth, intimacy and interaction. But intimacy can be a lot of things and as one of our users suggested, friendships can also offer you that much needed love that you are craving for.

Cherish your friends, celebrate and elevate each other. Friends are the family we choose ourselves. Sometimes, especially in the LGBTIQ community, family members can be toxic and it is our friends who most of the times keep us sane.

Instagram replies tend to overlook too much attention to grammar but we get the gist of it. I think this reply here contains a very important pearl of wisdom which is to know thyself. Often relationships fail because we fail to recognise qualities in others that trigger the worse in ourselves. To know one's own strengths and weaknesses is a great sign of emotional intelligence and which can secure a long term relationship.

As obvious as this might sound, yes we do need to be aware that there are external pressures out there beyond what is evident, that makes us feel miserable with ourselves and that we can only be happier if we buy, consume, show off etc. It is important to take a step back and realised that many times, what we have is all we need to be happy.

Society oftens puts a lot of pressure on us to constantly be in a relationship, otherwise you can't be a full human being. We need to destroy this concept and realise that being single can also lead to great things.

And in conclusion, let's not forget the greatest advice of all - that your self worth should never be linked to your relationship status. Relationships are a lot of work in ensuring you're both equals in the relationship. If you're in a relationship at the cost of serving the other but never to receive the same recognition, then your whole being is being put at stake.

Bonus content:

We love this silver lining.