'Real love starts within you': Oprah teams up with Jennifer Garner, James Corden, more to spread self love

It's no secret the pandemic has had an impact on most people, and during this year's Galentine's Day, Oprah is encouraging everyone to love on themselves a little harder.

During Saturday's "Be The Love You Need" virtual event with Weight Watchers, Oprah recruited celebrity friends Jennifer Garner, Ciara, Kym Whitley and James Corden to speak about grace, living in the present and vulnerability.

And because it's Galentine's Day, Oprah gave a shoutout to her bestfriend Gayle saying "I never needed therapy because I have Gayle."

Oprah kicked off the event by stating it's important to celebrate Valentine's Day whether you're showing your partner, your friends or yourself love adding she was looking forward to receiving flowers and handwritten notes from her dogs on Feb. 14 (which are written by Stedman Graham based on the pups' personalities).

"One of the things that I really know for sure — real love, the truest, the purest starts within you," Oprah said. "For many of us, depending on what happened in your life at an early age. It is the work of your life to heal yourself enough to give yourself the love you need."

Garner, who's a mother of three, encouraged people to put themselves first especially when they're not feeling their best. Along with finding ways to move and be active, she recommended giving yourself grace and being gentle with yourself.

"When I am overwhelmed, I put myself first by saying 'Go gentle on yourself'," Garner said. "You don't have to be everything to everyone, you don't have to be everything to yourself right now. Never hurry, never worry."

The "Miracles From Heaven" actress added to "remove guilt from the situation" and not beat yourself up over not doing enough.

Ciara, who welcomed her third child in July, during the coronavirus pandemic, spoke with Oprah about enjoying the process of her post-baby weight loss journey and giving herself grace throughout.

"I had a moment where I had to give myself a little grace. We went on a couple of vacations so I kind of ate a few more desserts than I should have," she said adding that she still has a few more pounds left to reaching her goal. "I'm also enjoying the process... I'm really enjoying my curves, I think my goal may change... I think I may want to hold on to five more pounds than I normally would."

Comedian Whitley shared how making little changes to her lifestyle resulted in big results for her.

The "Deliver Us From Eva" actress said doing things like shutting down her kitchen at a certain time and just walking and working out while talking on the phone have been beneficial for her.

Corden reflected on his decision to begin losing weight and spoke on how it's a different experience for men than it is for women.

"I do think as a man it's historically seen as it isn't very sexy to say you're on a diet or it's not very manly somehow to want to make changes in your own health," Corden said. "I think it's the single most positive and sexy thing you can do to say 'I would like to be a bit healthier'."

Corden also opened up about how he gets emotional watching his video announcement revealing he's joining WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and talked about the importance of asking for help when needed.

"As soon as you open yourself out to people and say 'This is how I'm feeling and I might be struggling with this,' you will be met with a wave of people going 'How can I help?'," Corden said noting this wasn't just related to weight loss. "Whereas if I hold on to those things and I'm eating stuff out the fridge at midnight and then feeling rubbish about it then you're never going to get that support."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Galentine's Day: Oprah says 'real love starts within you'