Giving Yourself Permission

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While reading Brené Brown’s book, Braving The Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, I found a few words that really resonated with me. Okay, if I’m being honest, I found a lot within these pages that resonated with me. What I’m going to share with you is an excerpt from after Brené had a call with her daughter confirming that she signed a field trip permission slip for school. She then realized that she needed to give her own self permission to stop being so serious and afraid. Often times we are waiting for permission from someone (who knows who!) to be ourselves, to give ourselves a little wiggle room and grace, to let our guards down and simply be.

So as I continue reading, I see that Brené decided to write herself a permission slip, on a post-it note from her desk, and it read “Permission to be excited and goofy and to have fun.” This ended up being the first of many permission slips she wrote out for herself. She goes on to say, “those permission slips to myself were actually an attempt to belong to myself and no one else.”

Writing a permission slip is a solid first step. It’s an awesome intention that you can set for yourself, but then you must also remember to follow through.