Life Coach Jennifer Louden has declared May 15 Freedom From Self-Improvement Day, a chance to spend some time just loving ourselves exactly the way we are right now. What an incredible concept!

As someone whose job focuses on helping women change for the better, I spend a lot of time in the self-help aisle of my local bookstore. After all, it takes work to learn how to be a ChronicBabe. It takes time and effort to accept life with chronic illness and live graciously. Enlightenment doesn't come easy, people!

But there's a limit, and a lot of women have not just reached that limit - they've plowed right through it and are driving themselves mad with self-improvement. Just imagine Bridget Jones and her stack of "women who love men" books. You know she'd rather be enjoying a glass of wine and a good flick instead!

So how will you spend today? Loving those few extra pounds? Following Cindy LaFerle's example and eschewing perfectionism? Walking right past the self-help aisle and veering toward the travel guides or cookbooks?

And do we have to wait a whole year for another day to have permission to love ourselves just as we are? Do we have to wait until October 17 to celebrate Love Your Body Day?

I don't think so, folks, and I'm not alone. Adios, Barbie offers up seven ideas for how to "love your body through thick & thin" for starters. About-Face has some helpful tips as well.

Maybe we should carry forward Jennifer's idea and make the 15th of every month a freedom from self-improvement moment. I think I hear a collective sigh of relief...

So how will you spend Freedom from Self-Improvement Day? I'm not embarrassed to say I'm shoving aside my stack of self-help books, rolling up the meditation mat, putting on my favorite old, ratty t-shirt and chilling with some chick flicks. Tomorrow I can go back to striving for enlightenment.  

- Jenni Prokopy founded ChronicBabe in 2005 to help young women with chronic illness learn to be Babes in spite of their health limitations. She writes about health and self-improvement for a variety of print and online publications.