What if I Choose to Love Myself?

For as long as I can remember, I have been in transition.

Working toward my goal weight. Working toward a certain clothing size. Working to break bad habits. Working to form better habits.

Working to be a better version of myself. Never satisfied with the current version.

Society often tells us that we shouldn’t be happy with ourselves unless we meet certain standards of perfection. So by default, anyone who doesn’t meet that standard should be profoundly unhappy and dissatisfied with life.

And that is why we are so shocked and taken aback when we see “imperfect” people speaking out about how they love themselves and are happy with who they are right now. We are so conditioned to work towards “perfection”,  so we can’t wrap our minds around the fact that someone can be truly happy in an “imperfect” state.

But, what if I choose to love myself? I mean, really just love myself for who I am at this moment, in my imperfect state.

What if I choose to love myself at this size? What if I choose to love myself enough to be content with the number on the scale? What if I choose to love every single curve on my body? Because yes, I am still not at my target weight, but I am proud of how far I’ve come.

What if I choose to love my hair every day, even when it doesn’t cooperate? What if I choose to love it right after I’ve washed it and it’s in short, tight ringlets around my head? What if I choose to love it when it’s not straight like everyone else’s?

What if I choose to love my bare face every single day? What if I choose to love my face even when I break out or get a huge pimple? What if I looked at my face every day and said “wow, I’m beautiful”?

What if I choose to love myself as a messy person? Because try as I might, I cannot keep my living space spotless 24-7. And even though I try my best to be neat and proper while I eat, I will inevitably spill or drop something on myself.

What if I choose to love myself with my less than perfect dancing skills? What if I stopped hiding on the sidelines and actually just let myself cut loose on the dance floor without caring about anyone watching me? Because as long as you’re confident people don’t really care what you do on the dance floor.

What if I choose to love myself as an emotionally empathetic person who feels everything deeply? What if I let more people see that side of me instead of continuing to keep people at arms length and acting like nothing can hurt me? Because there is strength in being a highly sensitive person and it’s ok to show others how much you care.

What if I choose to love myself as someone who sometimes gets attached to people too quickly? What if I saw that as a good thing instead of a weakness? Because, in a world that says it’s cool to be the one who cares less, it’s nice to stand out as someone who shows people that you value their place in your life.

What if I choose to love myself as someone who has various bad habits? What if I wasn’t so hard on myself all the time? Because I am human and I will mess up sometimes, but it’s not the end of the world when I do and it’s ok to cut myself some slack.

What if I realize that I am enough, I am whole, and I am worthy of love just the way I am right now, without any more improvements?

And, what if YOU choose to love yourself just the way you are? What if you look at yourself and choose to love the person you see? What if you take a break from your constant self improvement and decide to appreciate who you are at this moment?

How would that kind of love and acceptance of ourselves change the way we live our lives? How would such a blatant disregard for societal norms change the way we interact with ourselves as well as others?

To love oneself completely, at every point of life, is such a profoundly brave thing to do. It takes a lot of courage and determination to fight against the status quo of the world, but it’s so worth it.

So, while it’s ok to want to be better, I hope you will at least learn to love yourself now. Because you are already amazing.