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.

I recognize that recent months have been really hard…I recognize the fact that life has felt overwhelming…It has been unpredictable and difficult to manage…I am being impacted by this every single day in conscious and obvious ways…Other times it’s like a slow energy and emotional leak that is constantly happening in the background…Some days I’m able to manage this really, really well…Some days I’m able to navigate this without being overwhelmed…Other times it just becomes too much…I can’t focus…I’m distracted…Navigating the day feels much harder than it should be…There are even times where I completely break down…When the combination of all of these thoughts and all of these emotions become too much for me to navigate…Just become too much for me to manage…It becomes overwhelming…It feels like it is way too much for me to manage…When I’m overwhelmed like this…It feels like a failure…When I feel overwhelmed like this…It feels like I am breaking down…I’m overwhelmed and it feels like there’s no way out…I give myself permission to recognize that it is OK for me to admit that this is too much…It is OK for me to feel like I am breaking down because this really is a lot…This really is overwhelming…I give myself permission to take care of myself when I’m overwhelmed…I give myself permission to take care of myself when it feels like it is too much…I give myself permission to do what I need to do to take care of myself…Because in a moment like this…It’s OK to put myself first…In a moment like this, it’s OK to take care of myself…Even though this feels like it’s going to last forever…It’s not actually going to last forever…Even though this feels like it is completely overwhelming….It is something that I can and will survive…I give myself permission to admit this is hard…I give myself permission to take care of myself…I give myself permission to know that this isn’t going to last forever. 

My life is impacted by things that are outside of my control…There are things that I depend on…Sometimes I don’t have access to these things…Other people make mistakes…Systems break down…The systems and services that I build my life upon can run into all sorts of trouble…When I have this sort of trouble it disrupts everything…I can’t do what I need to do…I have to waste time trying to solve the problem…Sometimes there’s nothing I can do, and I’m just dependent upon someone else…It is so frustrating because when things are mission critical…It makes my life much harder when they are not working…And when this happens, I feel overwhelmed…I feel angry…I feel frustrated…I feel betrayed…It makes it really hard for me to see straight…It makes it really hard for me to think straight…It makes it really hard for me because it affects in every single part of my life…I give myself permission to hear all of these emotions…To know that these emotions want what’s best for me…They just want me to be safe…They want me to be healthy…They want me to be cared for…I give myself permission to hear these emotions…At the same time, I can recognize that this is not the end of the world…It is making my life harder…It is making my life more complicated…But I will get through this….It will not last forever even though it feels like it is lasting forever right now.

I recognize the fact that I was really emotional…I recognize that I was really overwhelmed…I recognize the fact that my emotions really got the better of me…And because I was so emotional, I acted hastily…I acted thoughtlessly which led to me behaving in a very unkind way…Unfortunately, what is done is done…Acting how I acted might’ve harmed a relationship and that’s hard…I pride myself in being thoughtful…I pride myself in being deliberate…I pride myself in having control of my emotions…In the moment I knew I was too emotional to respond…And still I let my emotions get the better of me…I know I can do better…I know I should have done better…Now the best that I can do is to take responsibility for my choices…And take responsibility for my actions…Learn from the moment and to give myself permission to do better in the future…Learning from the mistake without living in the mistake.

I’m really emotional right now…My emotions are really big…I hear the emotions…I understand that they’re trying to give me information…I know they want me to be aware…I also recognize I am not solely my emotions…My entire experience isn’t this feeling…I give myself permission to feel the emotion and let it go…I give myself permission to feel the emotion and to pass through it…The emotion is just information…It does not define me…It is not me…It’s just what I’m experiencing right now…I give myself permission to allow the emotion to pass without having to live in it forever…Knowing that it is just information…And I do not have to remain in this temporary emotional state.

I recognize that I compare myself to others…It isn’t necessarily a bad thing to be drawing a comparison…Looking to others as a way to learn…Looking to others to see a possible way forward…Looking to others is a way of seeing what is possible…But it’s easy for me to fall into the trap of using how others are presenting themselves as the standard that I am holding myself to…As the measurement as to whether or not I am doing a good job…As a way of seeing if I am being successful at life…The problem with doing this is it is not a fair comparison…I am not comparing like for like…I am comparing how other people are presenting themselves with what I am experiencing inside my own head…With what I am feeling inside my own heart…That is not a fair comparison…Everyone is trying to put on a brave face…Everyone is trying to show their lives at their best…So what others are presenting is not a full representation of their experience…And when I make this sort of comparison…I’m not treating myself kindly…Because it is not a fair comparison…When I look at other people’s social media feeds and feel bad…It’s because I am comparing my true self to their presentation of what their life is like…I give myself permission to be easy with myself…I give myself permission to recognize the truth about the way people present themselves in the world…I want to continue to strive for better…I want to be healthier…I want to be more successful…Comparing myself to others is not a useful way of doing that…I give myself permission to let go of the comparison…I recognize that sort of comparison is not fair to myself…This does not mean I’m going to stop trying…This does not mean I’m going to stop improving…It simply means I’m going to choose a more accurate comparison to see if I am achieving my goals…It is time for me to compare myself to myself and no one else…I can do this honestly…I can do this fairly…I can do this and keep evolving without being overwhelmed by the comparison.

I don’t always make the best choices…Sometimes I make really detrimental choices…I make choices that hurt me…I make unhealthy choices that I know are bad for me…And as I’m making those poor choices…It’s really easy to beat myself up…It’s really easy to feel overwhelmed by the consequences because of those choices…But I also recognize that my goal isn’t to make good choices all of the time…My goal is to make conscious choices…Because when I make conscious choices over the long term…I do make better choices…And more importantly I’m aware of who I am in the moment with each choice…I’m aware of who I am becoming…As long as I continue to do that in a conscious way…I’m going to move forward thoughtfully…I’m going to move forward in a deliberate way…And that’s really OK…Because when I move in that way I’m consciously controlling my life..I’m not responding purely from habit…Or responding purely from desire…And in the long term, that will mean much better choices…In the long term I will be healthier…In the long term I will be happier…As I navigate this in big and in small ways…It is OK if I sometimes make an unhealthy choice…I just want to make that unhealthy choice in a deliberate way…Because then I’m taking responsibility…Then I’m in the moment…Which makes it easier for me to move forward in a healthy and positive way.