If Love is a Choice....

...and it applies to our relationships with others, then I have no choice but to admit that it applies to self-love as well.

Maybe even more to self-love than any other kind, in fact.

That's a scary concept to someone who was taught, and lived her whole life believing that self-love and narcissism were pretty much the same thing.

Self-love isn't something that just happens out of nowhere. It's not a state that's achieved once one finally crosses all the necessary items off his or her "to do" list. It's a decision...or rather, a series of many little decisions over the course of a lifetime. I can either decide to wallow in self-pity and self-loathing, or I can decide to love and forgive myself, flaws and all, and conduct myself accordingly.

So what happens if I do? What happens if I finally, once and for all, make the conscious decision to love myself?

I have no idea. Right now that thought is a little too scary for me to fully process.