By the time February rolls around, there’s such a mixture of feelings.

Coziness with the winter days continuing, love with Valentine’s Day, and even some eagerness for Spring to move in a little bit quicker.

When the calendar turns to February, consider these 10 joyful parts about the year’s shortest month!

#1: Soaking Up Wintertime

I ended my 10 Joyful Things post for January with a similar joyful thing: appreciating winter. However, I think it is so important to reiterate something similar here for February!

Winter tends to get a bad rap. Its colder temperatures, its snowy days, its lack of green nature… all of it combine to make many have this pure hatred for this season (as I have said-I’m learning to like it more!).

Yet, winter makes up 1/4th of the year! Why spend a quarter of the year in pure detest for the weather/season when you could soak up the joy of it?

When you take a step back, winter is truly beautiful and magical!

The colder temperatures make it so you can feel the coziness of sweaters and getting to be around the fireside. The snow blankets this earth and truly turns our world into something truly wonder-full. The lack of green allows for us to see the beauty and joy in taking seasons of life to rest like nature does.

February (with its getting closer to springtime!) is a wonderful reminder to truly soak up those last moments of winter before the next wonderful (+warmer!) months come along.

I found this sweet quote via this post on Inspire Uplift, that summarizes this idea so well:

“February is the shortest month to enjoy ‘warmth of fireplace, cuddles in blankets, smell of your favorite brew, and long winter nights.’ Enjoy Every Minute”! -Inspire Uplift

Check out these ideas for enjoying February:

• Check out these quotes all about wintertime: Winter Quotes and Snow Quotes to Make Your Soul Sparkle
• Find an interesting book and read it by a fire (or watch one online!) Here’s one idea.
• Get outside! Go for a hike, a nice walk or go camping and take some time to appreciate the beauty of the world in winter! Here is a post by all about hiking/camping in the wintertime: Ultimate Guide to Winter Hiking and Camping
• Have some family and/or friends over and cook a nice warm stew, make a fire, play some games, listen to some cozy music, watch a heart warming movie, etc. and bask in the nice warmth of company amidst a snowy, cold backdrop! Pssst: Consider “playing” the Hygge Game!

#2: The Pinks and Reds

I love that February has pink (+red) related to it—it just brightens up this wintery month!

Red is a little more daring of a color to me, but is special in its own way!

Personally, I love the color pink. There’s something just so beautiful about it—it simple, sweet, and just a fun overall color. Plus, pink is actually a color that helps to promote feelings of joy!

#3: Gal-entine’s Day

As a Parks and Recreation fan, I love Leslie Knope’s holiday of Galentine’s Day.

Galentine’s Day is “celebrated” the day before Valentine’s Day on February 13th, and is a day dedicated to celebrating all your gal-friends in life. It’s such a fun day to honor all your friendships!

Some ideas to help you celebrate Gal-entine’s:

• Watch this clip of Leslie Knope explaining “Galentine’s Day”: Galentine’s Day
• Watch the Parks and Recreation episodes related to “Galentine’s Day”: Season Two’s “Galentine’s Day”, Season Four’s “Operation Ann”, and Season Six’s “Galentine’s Day”.
• Tell a gal in your life via speaking directly, a phone call, a text, a note, a letter, etc. how grateful you are for their presence in your life!
• Get together with your gals and celebrate! Have brunch, lunch, or dinner and express gratitude for your friendships– it’s truly something wonderful to have sisterhood! Here’s a post with some ways to celebrate this holiday: 13 Fun Ways to Celebrate Galentine’s Day with Your Best Girls
• Give gifts to your gals! If you see something that makes you think of them, give them it on Galentine’s day! Some ideas might be some nice tea and a mug, a book, or a journal!

#4: Valentine’s Day

The big day we associate with February!

Growing up, it wasn’t a huge favorite of mine. But, I have come to appreciate it as a day to celebrate love—in any and all forms! Whether that be love for someone special, family members, friends, pets, our Mother Earth, etc. What a day to celebrate that you have so many things to love!!!

Ideas to Celebrate Valentine’s Day:

• Send a letter/note, make a phone call or send a text to someone (not your romantic partner!) who you love thanking them for adding more love into your life!
• Try out this Yoga With Adriene’s Meditation for Self Love
• Practice Yoga With Adriene’s Self Love Yoga
• Read this book about loving yourself: Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of R A I N
• Try out this Dr. Joe Dispenza meditation all about sending love to someone in your life (and to Mother Earth!): GOLOV-20 Meditation
• Really lean into the gratitude for your relationship with your romantic partner–how beautiful it is that you get the opportunity to co-create a life of joy together!!!
• Read this book all about what love really is about: The Mastery of Love (this was the book for February’s Joyfilled Book Club!)
• Try out Dr. Joe Dispenza’s meditation on higher love for people in relationships: Higher Love: A Meditation for Couples
• Watch the movie Valentine’s Day

#5: Gifting Flowers

Personally, I love flowers! And I love that February (more specifically, Valentine’s Day) has this connotation of giving flowers to others in your life.

I actually have this quote about flowers framed in my bedroom because I just find flowers so special.

“I must have flowers, always and always.” -Claude Monet

What is it about flowers that makes people feel so….well… joyful? Perhaps it’s the beauty of them, their wonderful smells, or maybe it is actually something deeper?

Eckhart Tolle highlights this idea in his book, A New Earth with this powerful quote:

“The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human conciousness… seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature.” -Eckhart Tolle

While giving flowers in February is such a nice way to show someone you are thinking of them, I feel like it is something we can all do year-round! Why not give someone you care about some flowers and turn their ordinary day into an extraordinary one! Or give some to yourself! Here’s some flowers to consider!

#6: The Long Weekend

Perhaps the most perfecty time long weekend of the entire year-February’s Presidents weekend is so well appreciated.

Maybe it’s a time of rest for you, where you hunker down at home and enjoy the extra cozy time during winter.

Growing up, we spent this weekend going skiing, and it was always such a fun winter trip to take—I love the idea of taking a trip during the winter instead of saving that exclusively for summer/warmer times of the year!

Whatever you do to fill this weekend, make sure it fills up your cup and soul!

Some inspiration:

• 10 Winter Weekend Getaways in the USA
• 10 Destinations to Escape the Cold this Winter
• The Best Destinations to Travel to in February

#7: The Femininity of the Month

Between the pinks and reds, the flowers, and the overall air, February feels like such a month of more femininity. It feels like a softer, more gentle month which is a nice comparison to the colder temperatures and weather winter can bring.

In a way, February’s softness is such a nice reminder of seeing the softness and beauty of winter before it changes over to springtime in March!

Femininity and masculinity are both needed in life-the yin and yang symbol actually helps to depict this!

Here’s some ways to celebrate your femininity this month:

• How to Nurture Your Feminine Side
• Embrace quieter and slower days
• Embracing Feminine Energy in an Overtly Masculine World
• Flow instead of force your way through your day
• What is Feminine Energy? 6 Ways To Be More Feminine
• Give yourself some flowers!

#8: Hearts

Along with Valentine’s Day, February has the association of hearts which is such a special shape! It encapsulates so much of what life is about-pure love!!!

According to Art & Object, the heart shape’s origin is actually somewhat unknown, but there are different ideas about how it came to be and how it came to be associated with love. Check out the article here!

#9: The First “Warmer Day”

When I was little growing up in the Midwest, February was usually a colder month. However, there always seemed to be at least one day during February where temperatures would climb to the 50s and it was always such a fun day!

I always enjoy seeing people when the weather starts to feel warmer, there seems to be such an excitement all around. People gather outside more and celebrate that warmth after the colder days since November.

I love how February tends to give us that first hint of the warmer days of springtime ahead!

#10: Leap Day

When it falls, Leap Day is always so fun. It reminds us of the perplexity of nature and—due to its rareness— it always feels a little bit special!

I love this quote on Leap Day….

“Today is an ephemeral ghost…A strange amazing day that comes only once every four years. For the rest of the time it does not ‘exist.’ In mundane terms, it marks a ‘leap’ in time, when the calendar is adjusted to make up for extra seconds accumulated over the preceding three years due to the rotation of the earth. A day of temporal tune up! […]” -Vera Nazarian

Check out these ways to honor Leap Day:

• Try out these fun Leap Day Activities: 10 Fun Leap Day Activities to Help You Celebrate February 29
• Watch the movie Leap Year
• Read this interesting article on the Irish tradition of women proposing to men on Leap Day (which the movie, Leap Year, focuses on!)
• Read the book Leap Year by Helen Russell

Bonus #11: The Longer Days

I saw a quote that mentioned February is really the month you notice the increased daylight— how true is that?

What a joy it is to say, “Look how light it is at ____ time!”; it is such a reminder of the joy of springtime and summertime ahead!

What about February is joyful to you? Comment below!