I want to be more successful…I want to have more opportunities…To share my gifts with the world…I’m working hard to do exactly that…But at the same time I see what others are doing…I see the actions they are taking…I see the attention they’re getting…And I want that too…I want more opportunities…I want more recognition…That’s a normal human experience…I recognize when I feel the sort of jealousy it’s corrosive…It steals my motivation…It steals my hope…It steals my desire to move forward…Because if the world feels unfair, I don’t want to try…Because it doesn’t feel like it’s going to work out…Even though other people have opportunity…Even though other people have chances that I don’t currently have…That doesn’t mean I’ve run out of opportunities…It doesn’t mean that there aren’t enough chances for me…I recognize the fact that it is possible for me…To acknowledge what other people are doing without feeling like their success undermines me…There is enough opportunity out there…There are enough chances…There are enough platforms for me to stand on…I give myself permission to be easy with myself…I give myself permission to trust my actions…I know that I can find the success that I want…Because there are more than enough opportunities for everyone…And when other people are successful, they’re actually creating more space for all of us to be successful…I give myself permission to have hope…I give myself permission to have confidence…I give myself permission to step forward in a thoughtful and deliberate way.

I recognize that I have failed…Not that I failed at everything…But I have failures in my past…Things that I committed to and did not complete…Things that I did, but did not give them the attention they required…Things that I did that did not live up to expectation…This is because I am human…Because I am human, I am imperfect…But these failures are still rattling around inside of me…I have not processed them all…They have become emotional anchors…They are holding me back from moving forward…Because I don’t want to face failure like this again…But staying stuck here prevents me from moving forward…Which could involve even more failure…Which could be even more treacherous…I recognize the fact that I don’t need to stay stuck in the past…I recognize that I don’t have to keep reliving these failures…I recognize that I don’t have to stay stuck inside of this narrative…I give myself permission to release and let go of the emotional burden that I’m still carrying from these failures…Moving on does not mean I am forgetting the lessons…Moving on does not mean that I’m not taking responsibility for my past choices…Moving on does not mean that I’m simply over it…But instead I give myself permission to process…I give myself permission to heal…I give myself permission to be in this moment…Learning from the past…Without staying stuck in that past…Learning from my experiences…Without staying stuck in those experiences…It is OK for me to move on…Those past memories do not serve me by staying stuck inside me emotionally…I give myself permission to be easy with myself…I give myself permission to be gentle with myself…Letting go of these past failures without having to relive the past failures.

I might understand that I am worthy of healing…Intellectually…I might understand that I’m worthy of transformation…But just because I can say that clearly…Just because I can intellectually know that it’s true…It doesn’t mean that every part of me buys into that fact…It doesn’t mean that every part of me sees that as true…It is possible that there is a part of me that does not believe I am worthy of transformation…It might be afraid that since I squandered healing in the past…That it is too late for me to have it now…It might believe that I have done things that are so horrible…That it is too late for me and I can’t come back from it….There might be a part of me that thinks I’ve always been broken…That I’m just not enough and therefore I’m not worthy of total transformation…I’m not worthy of true deep healing…Other people are worthy of healing…Other people are good enough…But not me…It is too late…I am too far gone…I was never capable of it…This is simply not true…Even though there’s a part of me that feels it is really emotionally true…There is a part of me that doesn’t believe I am truly worthy of transformation…This part of me is just trying to keep me safe…This part of me is just trying to keep me healthy…It is simply working from a misinformed place…I give myself permission to believe emotionally I am worthy of healing…I give myself permission to believe it is safe for me to heal…I give myself permission to believe that it is not too late for me…Some parts of my being understand this…Some parts of my being and embrace this…Some parts of me see this clearly…I simply want to encourage this part…To know that it is OK to believe that…I also recognize that I don’t have to believe this every moment of the day…It is OK for me to be skeptical about my transformation…As long as I’m open to the possibility of transformation when I sit down to tap…I can do some work today…I can create a little more capacity to recognize I am worthy of this…Even if I increase my belief in my worthiness of healing by only a few percentage points…It will make today a little bit easier as I become more open to those opportunities for transformation…Transformation is not an all-or-nothing proposition…Transformation has never been an all-or-nothing proposition…Therefore I don’t have to believe all of the healing as possible in this moment…I can doubt my worthiness of healing and continue to heal…I can be skeptical of the possibility of my transformation and still have transformation happen…My healing and transformation is incremental…Therefore, my belief in my healing and transformation can also be incremental…I am made for healing…I am made for transformation…It is safe for me to heal and transform…I give myself permission to embrace that possibility.

I recognize the fact that I am distracted…I recognize that there is a part of me that doesn’t want to be doing that task…And because this is the case, all sorts of fun things are coming to mind…I can clean up my desk to make it easier to work on…There are dishes to be done…Laundry  to be folded…YouTube rabbit holes to fall down…I appreciate the sense of distraction is just trying to keep me safe…It’s just trying to keep me healthy…Because it doesn’t want to be doing whatever I’m doing in this particular moment…Maybe it’s really boring…Maybe it feels like I’m never going to finish it…Maybe it feels overwhelming…Or I’m having to look at something that I don’t like to look at…My distraction is simply a way of avoiding all of those emotions…It is simply trying to keep me safe…I appreciate that is what it’s trying to do…But I also recognize that it is possible for me to relax…To release whatever emotion I’m feeling in this moment…To release whatever overwhelm is going on…Knowing that I’m not going to be stuck doing this forever…Once this is done, I can move on to the next thing…When I take a proper break, I can enjoy whatever distraction I want…But in this moment I want to be focused…In this moment I want to be on task…I appreciate that the distraction is trying to serve me…I recognize how it isn’t doing that in this moment…I appreciate my system is trying to keep me safe…And I recognize it’s just overfunctioning.

I recognize the fact that life right now is hard…I recognize that life right now feels overwhelming…There are so many things happening in the world that are outside of our control…These feelings have built up and have been building up for a long time…Some moments we’re able to move through what is in front of us…Some moments we’re able to be present in the moment…But the burden is real…The struggle is real…The emotions are real…So I give myself permission to feel the emotions fully…I give myself permission to be present to all my emotions…I give myself permission to understand that feeling these emotions is natural…I don’t have to fight them…They’re not the enemy…I don’t have to enjoy them…I don’t want to wallow in them…But I give myself permission to admit that it is hard…The sadness that I’m feeling is for everything that’s been lost…The sadness that I’m feeling is for all of those things that are strained….The sadness that I’m feeling is for all of those things that have been fractured…It is OK to feel this sadness…Because that is where I am in this moment…That is an honest reflection of my experience…I give those emotions permission to be heard…I give myself permission to acknowledge their presence…Knowing that I won’t feel them forever…Knowing they are heavy right now, but that this is a temporary state…It’s not always going to be this hard…Even though it feels really hard right now…It’s OK that I have acknowledged that life feels hard right now…It is OK that I don’t know what to say…It’s OK that I don’t know what to do…It is OK that it all feels overwhelming in this moment…I know I am more than the emotions I’m feeling right now…I know I am more than the emotions that I’m experiencing…I also know that this is the truth for this moment…And I allow myself to feel all my feelings fully right now.

side of the eye…under the eye…top of the head

collar bone…under the arm…side of the hand

inside of the wrist…chin…eyebrow

under the eye…side of the eye…to be top of the head

thumb…index finger…middle finger

ring finger…pinky finger…collarbone

eyebrow…under the eye…gamut point

chin…eyebrow…under the eye

side of the eye…liver spot…under the arm

side of the hand…middle finger…thumb

under the eye…eye brow…top of the head

under the nose…chin…collarbone

side of the hand…eyebrow…under the eye

under the nose…top of the head…eyebrow

under the nose…collarbone…side of the hand

I recognize that I am in transition…I recognize my life is changing…My life is always changing day to day…Sometimes my life changes in grand ways…In significant ways…In ways that change the way I interact with everyone around me…When this happens it can make it difficult for me to know where I stand…To know how people are thinking about me…To know what people are thinking about me…And because that’s the case, I might feel insecure…I may feel unsteady…I may feel overwhelmed…There is a very primitive part of me that wants me to stay safe…The way it defines safety is in terms of how I am connected to others…And because I’m making such a big transition I’m having to renegotiate my relationships with others…Which feels uncertain…Which feels very unsafe to this primitive part of my brain…That part that is trying to keep me safe likes things to be predictable…The part is that is trying to keep me safe likes consistency…Because as I’m going through so much change, this part is more aware…It’s more on guard…This part is working overtime…Even though there is major change in my life, I can be safe….Even though there is major change in my life, I can be consistent…Even though there is a major change in my life I can still be comfortable inside of my own skin…In the long term, the change I’m going through is good for me…Even though it’s difficult in this moment…This change isn’t about right now…It’s about everything that comes after this moment…How I’m able to build on this change…How I’m able to grow through this change…I give myself permission to trust myself…I give myself permission to trust the process as it unfolds and know that I am safe. 

I feel really disappointed…Because I am missing an opportunity…Because I’m missing an experience…Because I am missing an outcome I really wanted…I was so looking forward to this…It was something I was really going to enjoy and I can’t do it right now…And that hurts…The reason it hurts is because my system is pointing out something that was really important to me…My system is pointing out the missed opportunity…My system is pointing out the missed growth that could have happened…It is OK to feel disappointment…It’s OK to recognize hopes that have not been realized…I’m glad that I actually have hopes…I’m glad I had things to look forward to…It hurts not to have those expectations fulfilled…It hurts to know those opportunities are lost…But this is not the last opportunity I’m going to have…This is not the last experience that is good for me…This is not the last time I’m going to have hopes and expectations…I give myself permission to experience the disappointment…To acknowledge the things that are being missed…To acknowledge the future opportunities that have been lost because I lost this particular one…But that does not mean I’m stuck here…It does not mean that there are no longer things to look forward to…It does not mean I will always feel this way…I give myself permission to feel the disappointment…And to know that there is still hope.

I recognize that there’s a part of me that wants to make good, thoughtful choices…Choices that line up with my vision…Choices that line up with my mission…Choices that line up with who I want to be in the world…I’m glad I take responsibility for my choices…I’m glad that I want to make thoughtful choices…I’m glad I want to make deliberate choices…At the same time I don’t have to justify all of my choices…I don’t have to explain all of my choices…I don’t even need to have a good reason for making the choices that I’m making…I am allowed to make choices simply because I am making that choice…I am allowed to choose simply because I want the choice I am making…I don’t need a good explanation…I don’t need to explain why…I don’t have to justify it to anyone else…I don’t have to justify it to myself…I have to take responsibility for my choices…I have to take responsibility for the consequences of my choices…But they are just my choices…I can make them because I want to make them…this does not mean I am thoughtless…This does not mean that I’m careless…This does not mean that I’m reckless…It only means I am making a choice because I want to make that choice…It is my life…I get to choose to do what I want to do…I get to craft it in the way that I want to craft it…I give myself permission to make the choices that I want to make…Without having to justify them to anyone else.

I recognize the fact there are so many things in the universe that are outside of my control…When things are going well it feels like the world is manageable…When things are going as planned it feels like the world is predictable…It feels like I have more control than I actually do…In the moments of conflict it’s really easy to feel out of control…In the moments of strife it’s easy to feel lost…In the moments of uncertainty, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed…I give myself permission to feel overwhelmed…I give myself permission to feel out of control…I give myself permission to recognize that there are things that impact my life over which I have no control……This is not a sign of weakness…This is not a sign of helplessness…This is simply being human…I give these emotions permission to be heard…Because these emotions only want me to be safe…These emotions only want me to be aware…These emotions only want me to be able to manage the day-to -day in a healthy way…It makes sense that I’m looking out for danger…It makes sense that I’m looking out for trouble…It makes sense that I’m on the lookout for overwhelm…Just because there is uncertainty, it does not mean I am unsafe…Just because there is uncertainty, it does not mean I have lost my ability to choose…Just because there is uncertainty, I have not lost my ability to take action…I give myself permission to be easy with myself…I give myself permission to be in this moment…I give myself permission to make the best possible choice that I can make in this moment…Even if I’m uncertain of what that choice should be…I can manage this…I can navigate this…I can survive this…I give myself permission to simply be in this moment…To make the best possible choices that I can make in big and in small ways…I have survived uncertainty before…I can survive uncertainty again…I give myself permission to be in this moment…I give myself permission to simply do the best that I can at this moment.