Navigating V-Day for the widowed and divorced

By Daisy Whitney

Valentine's Day can be particularly tough if you have just lost a partner or are recently divorced, says Debbie Mandel, author and radio host.

If you have just lost your partner, consider the following strategies for Valentine's Day.

• Create a ritual commemorating your love like visiting a place you both enjoyed, such as the beach, a park or a hike. Recall your partner to life with a beautiful or humorous memory. 
• Create a new ritual for yourself. Rediscover your new identity and fall in love with you. Go to a spa to be touched again with a massage and facial. Do a new workout like belly dancing.
• Delight in your five senses. Try to do something special for every sense from aromatherapy to music.

If you are newly divorced, here are a few ways to make it through the day.

• Buy yourself a special gift that symbolizes who you are or who you wish to be.
• Begin your "New Year" of love with a positive, healthy change for the better, whether it is being an attentive listener instead of a talker, or eating a balanced breakfast, or exercising three times a week, Mandel says. Now is the time to do it for you.