5 reasons to be cheerful when you’re single

Are you single?

How do you really feel about that?

For some, it can feel like a life sentence, a devil’s curse. A feeling of being sent to the waiting room for the sad and lonely, desperate for the call from reception that their new relationship is now ready. Why is there this stigma that being single is a bad thing?

Part of this may come from longstanding expectations about relationships and what a happy or successful life is supposed to look like. "I want a relationship like my grandparents".

We can still receive messages that suggest all our life roads should eventually lead to a relationship. If you are not in a relationship, does that really mean you can’t truly be happy?

If you are single, you may experience all sorts of feelings about it, including loneliness, sadness, freedom, happiness, or simply being OK with where you are. While we can't always choose how we feel, we can consider how we want to approach this stage of our lives.

So why not make space for being single and happy, elated, proud or simply single and OK with it? Walking in a single wonderland can be a great time if you allow yourself to enjoy it for what it is.

In the meantime, let’s have a light-hearted look at the five joys of freedom.

1. Bed to yourself

Being single means that the bed is all yours, no argument. You win hands down! This means that you won’t feel a foot in your back in the middle of the night. Waking up with a palm in the back of your neck will be a thing of the past, and you can say goodbye gleefully to hearing sleep talk and snoring as well as the dreaded morning breath.

And best of all, you can claim the middle of the bed and sleep like a baby.

2. Events

You don’t have to go to any events that you just don’t want to. You don’t have to be at anything that doesn’t tickle your fancy. In short, you don’t have to go where you don’t want to go.

When you are dating someone, you may find yourself attending certain functions as their partner - imagine leaving your partner to attend a wedding without you. When you’re in a relationship, you may do it out of love or duty, but when you are walking in a single wonderland, you are excused from attending weddings, work functions and gatherings with relatives/in-laws.

3. Flirt

In these times of bachelorism, why not take the opportunity to flirt? Flirting is a wonderful thing to partake in, provided it is consensual, of course, but when it is, you can wink, smile, giggle and play.

Flirting can be fun and, for some people, a confidence boost.

4. Love yourself

You get time to be with you and to treat yourself like royalty. Spend time on your own getting to know yourself or learning more about yourself.

Do things alone that you enjoy and make space to nurture your self-esteem.

5. TV

When you are partner-free, you can watch anything you want to watch when you want to watch it.

You don’t have to scroll through Netflix for hours trying to find something fresh that you both haven’t seen. You don’t have to lie that you watched a couple of episodes of your joint favourite programme without them when they were out.

There are no interruptions, so you won’t miss the best bit of your favourite programme.