The Power of Giving Yourself Permission & How To Do It
When I embarked on a journey of creative living, of needing to change my life and my circumstances, as well as turning to fine art, I realised I had to give myself permission to do it all. Against the judgement of others.
We all grew up in a world where we had to be given permission before we did something whether that came from parents, or from school and even now, from work. It makes it much harder therefore to give ourselves permission to do what it is we desire to do. But must we do.
Often people close to us, who love us, can still discourage us from things for their own personal reasons and somehow it gets reflected on to us, for example we are told: we need to be 'realistic', to make sure we earn enough money, to ensure we don’t ‘fail, but if you’ve spent even 5 minutes here, you will know there is no such thing as failure - only feedback. Doing something is the only way to learn and with the information gathered, we can implement, try again, take a different route, another way - until we get there.
Consider this; what if we actually know more than we realise about what is good for us? Deep down we know what we are called to, yet it can be hard to act on. It can feel painful going against the advice of others, or knowing that we may have to make difficult choices. Even more so when we grow up in a culture dedicated to listening to authority. Guidance is needed I know, but sometimes it may lead to self-paralysis if our own inner judgement is lost, and we stop listening to our intuition, which is our greatest advisor.
I like to ask questions, explore options, discover individual answers and I have found we do often have them when it comes to what choices to make. Then the real permission-giving starts. It begins to get more creative, exciting (I find), possibilities open up, and changes can be made, options explored and we can give ourselves the opportunity to ‘experiment’ - the most successful people in the world are those prepared to experiment and take that risk - sometimes even against all odds! And it is only then we see their success but we don’t see the journey along the way. Do you feel it’s time to listen to your own inner voice and hear and give yourself permission today to do something you really want to do? I say do it! It can only lead to somewhere different to where you are now and if you don’t like or enjoy where you are now, that is your inner voice already telling you it’s time for change.
5 ways to Start Giving Yourself Permission Today:
DECIDE - as simple as it sounds, make a conscious decision you are going to give yourself permission to do whatever it is you are feeling you need to do right now
Write yourself a letter. Where do you want to be 1 year from now and what do you feel you need to give yourself permission to do to get there? Write this letter back to you in a year’s time stating what you have accomplished in the last 12 months - have fun with it, dream big
Spend 5 minutes tuning in to how you feel. If you don’t feel good - invite release, simply ask for guidance in letting it go now. Then, use the rest of the time to tune in to what you feel you would enjoy giving yourself permission to do, start to imagine it; what it would feel like and look like for you if you gave yourself permission to do it
Take one action today - a step toward the thing you need to release, forgive, take action on, start doing (because you love it), and notice how it feels in your body to do this - it’s vital to align with what feels best for you. Permission is about feeling good
Allow yourself to have a GO or if you’ve tried something once and felt it didn’t work out, TRY AGAIN! We are a culture that likes pass or fail, but that’s not helpful. So if something didn’t work out or you want to give it a go, I say, try it today!
My ethos in life is one of being creative and experimental - so give yourself permission today and start that ONE THING you’ve been longing to do - or at least take one action-step toward it today!
Amelia.x