You’ve heard it millions of times; “you have to love yourself before you can love anyone else.” Most of the time people spiel off this poor, cliché, excuse for relationship advice because they don’t know anything better to say. However, there may be some truth to the empty, meaningless phrase.

It’s easy to say, “I love myself.” It doesn’t take much to look in the mirror and say “I’m happy with my skinny legs, my strong shoulders and my unruly head of curls.” But think about it for a moment. If your significant other spent all day talking about how much they love you rather than showing you, would it be good enough for you? Of course it wouldn’t. Show yourself a little love. Run yourself a bath and take you out on the town.

While some people shy away from going out alone, there are perks to solitude. You can treat yourself to dinner and a movie at half the price. There’s no one at the dinner table begging you to put down your wine glass with convicting looks and don’t-you-think-you’ve-had-enough-whispers. You don’t have to worry about fighting over movie genres or places to sit in the theater.

Best of all, you don’t have to spend all night dodging sloppy kisses and less-than-appealing sexual advances – unless you’re into that. In the short film First Date, Natasha King offers her choreographed perspective on a night out with herself.  In the dance film directed by Eren Gulfidan, King takes loving yourself to a whole new level as she adorns herself with strawberry kisses throughout her improvised routine. Whatever soothes your soul.

Debra Graff is a dating and relationship specialist that says it’s not necessary to become “Godzilla” after a break-up. In her article Are You Smart In Life, Yet Foolish In Love, she calls a date with yourself “one of the many blessings of singledom.” So embrace it. Show yourself a little love, even if it means kissing yourself in public. PDA really gets the point across. Treat yourself so special that the next time you say “I love you self,” yourself will believe you.

For more videos like First Date, visit my Web TV here on Film Annex.