This Valentine’s Day, give loved ones the gift of learning
After an emotionally exhausting year, this Valentine’s Day offers an opportunity to share a new love language with your sweethearts.
Instead of flowers and a greeting card and takeout for two, get a gift that allows them to appreciate themselves more deeply and accept the world around them more fully.
We’ve rounded up some thoughtful ways to nurture the mind, body, and soul that are sure to be more fulfilling than a box of chocolates.
LEARNING TO LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND
Add to a special friend’s board game collection with a fun (and competitive) card game ($45 at actuallycurious.com) that isn’t just about winning but about becoming closer, with less small talk and more real talk. The deck is full of questions on background, values, and views on important issues that will help you both break the ice and build bonds that will last longer than a bouquet of flowers.
Meanwhile, on the solo tip, Inner Workout ($36 at innerworkout.co) can inspire others to listen and learn about themselves from the inside out. Classes combine breath work, journaling, active meditation, and introspection. Or give loved ones the best version of yourself by signing up for virtual therapy app BetterHelp ($60 to $90 weekly at betterhelp.com) that makes it easier to talk it out 24/7 when depression, anxiety, or grief set in.
LEARNING TO NOURISH ONESELF AND OTHERS
Give a loved one some sugar with a one-hour “Galentine’s” baking course and Q&A from Black- and female-owned bakery Blondery ($25 at blondery.com), which turned out one of Bloomberg Pursuits’ best dishes of 2020. Private, smaller-group sessions with pastry chef Auzerais Bellamy are also available on demand (from $85 per person), giving recipients the secret ingredient to making the perfect blondie. (Spoiler: It’s generosity.)
If your Valentine prefers something savory, the Caspian Chef’s online cooking class will spice up date night up with the aromatic flavors of Iranian cuisine and chef Omid Roustaei’s anecdotes about Persian culture ($75 at thecaspianchef.com).
With more than 150 recipes inspired by Black chefs, activists, and writers-including a gumbo honoring the legendary Leah Chase — renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson’s cookbook
“The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food” ($38 at mahoganybooks.com) is a journey through food and history that will leave hearts (and bellies) full.
LEARNING TO RESPECT ONE’S BODY
Nurture the love from within via the gift of mindfulness. Help a sweetheart find inner peace with a personal meditation trainer ($149 at hellocore.com) that uses sensors to measure stress levels and emits vibrations in response to help maintain mental presence during expert-led classes. And to spruce up a sanctuary, a Zafu-style meditation cushion set ($245 at walden.us) adapts to body shapes with an organic buckwheat filling, allowing for comfort and stability and more perfect alignment during practice.
Whether they’re meditating or just vegetating to Netflix, Virtuvi’s new collection of stone diffusers ($119 at vitruvi.com) -in honey, rose, and sea colors-can add an air of indulgence with organic essential oils.
If they’re not quite ready to go back to a public spa, turn up the heat with a treatment at home. An infrared sauna blanket ($499 at higherdose.com) from industry leader Higher Dose helps boost immunity.