It’s Friday night and my husband and I are gearing up for Eat Pray Love. My parents are watching the kids, and we are going to have our date night. We try to have a fun night out pretty regularly, because everyone needs a “date night” every now and then.  And, I’m not talking about the traditional date alone. You can go on a date your mate, meet up with old friends you haven’t seen, go out alone- yes, you can and should date yourself, too!

“Date” just means go out and have a good time, or stay in and have a good time. It doesn’t have to be romantic, it just needs to make you smile, relax, let go a little. Fun, play, and laughter is essential to our well being. If curling up with a novel (fiction, not work related) is something you’ve been longing to do, start a bath, light a candle, poor your favorite drink, and get reading. If you and the girls haven’t gone dancing in decades, hit the club and dance it up! If you and your husband crave a night out, but feel bad about taking so much time, make it a “dessert date” and skip the dinner to go right for the cake. It might be quick, but just enough time to connect.

The key to “Date Night” is it should happen regularly and fit in your schedule. If weekly “Date Nights” are impossible, make an outing at least once a month, or every other week. The important relationships in our life should never suffer (including the relationship we have with ourselves) because of lack of time, so make it a point to connect as often as realistically possible.

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