It is good for me to look back…It is good for me to evaluate my past choices…It is good for me to see where I have been…To take responsibility for my past choices and to learn from my past…At the same time I recognize the fact it is impossible for me to see my past self clearly…I have learned since then…I have grown since then…I have transformed since then…And that makes it hard for me to remember my previous self…To remember what I knew and didn’t know back then…Once I know something now there’s a part of me that believes that I’ve always known it…Because this is human nature…Because this is the human experience…I need to remind myself to be gentle with myself…When I’m evaluating my past…When evaluating my previous choices…This doesn’t mean I’m letting myself off the hook…This doesn’t mean that I’m being thoughtless and careless…I should only judge my past self and who I was in that moment…And what I knew in that moment…And what I was capable of in that moment…I know much more now than I did back then…I’m doing myself a huge disservice by judging myself based on what I know now…I choose to take responsibility and see myself for who I clearly was back then…I can learn from the past while still remembering I was in a different place when I was making those choices back then…I’m glad I’m the new me…I’m glad that I’m continuing to evolve and grow…Part of that evolution is being gentle with my past self. 

There are opportunities all around me…Some of those opportunities are an obvious fit for me…Some of those opportunities are not an obvious fit for me…I do know that if I stay in the same place…And if I don’t try something new…Then my life is going to be no different…My life will be exactly the same…I give myself permission to say yes more…To say yes to unexpected opportunities…To say yes to things that come out of the blue…Say yes to things that I’m a little worried about trying…This does not mean that I’m reckless…This does not mean that I am careless…This does not mean that I am thoughtless…It simply means I’m going to say yes more…When I say yes more my life is richer…When I say yes more my life is more exciting…When I say yes more I give myself an opportunity to grow…Not reckless yeses…Not thoughtless yeses…But more yeses…It is good for me…It is good for my growth…I give myself permission to say yes more. 

Script for having my yes mean yes:

I want to communicate clearly…I want people to know where I stand…I want people to have clear expectations of where I am coming from…It is not my job to protect other people’s feelings…I do the opposite of serving people when I tell them what I think they want to hear…In order for people to understand where I’m coming from, to make our communication clear… And to remove the unnecessary burden of me trying to protect them…I give myself permission to have my yes mean yes…And my no mean no…This does not mean that I’m unkind…This does not mean that I’m thoughtless…This doesn’t mean that I’m inconsiderate of other people’s feelings…I acknowledge and recognize the fact I am not responsible for their feelings…I am not responsible for their emotional response…Ultimately the truth will come out…It’s better when I communicate clearly…So that everybody understands where I’m coming from…I give myself permission to have my yes mean yes…I give myself permission to have my no mean no.

I want peace in the world…I want peace in my world…I want to recognize the connection I have with others…I want to be open to others connecting with me…I want to be an instrument of peace…And often when I am an instrument of peace it’s not through giant grand gestures…It’s not via over-the-top actions…It is in the peace that I create in my own life…It is in the peace that I create in my own family…Is the peace that I create with everyone I interact with every day…It is not always easy to show up in a way that promotes peace…It is not always easy to be charitable…It is not always easy to be open and giving…Is not always easy to practice peace…I give myself permission today to know that my simple loving acts are useful…My graceful acts make a difference…My gentle acts make a difference and are significant…They are meaningful actions…They do create peace…I want to be a peacemaker…I want to be an agent of peace…In big and in small ways…My simple actions and my small actions and my kind actions create ripples that have a larger impact…Help me to know peace…Help me to strive for peace…Help me to be peace in the world.

I recognize that making choices is hard…That most of the choices I’m making are not clear-cut…There is no obvious answer…There’s no obvious way forward…And because of this, I am of two minds…I can see the pros and cons to both sides…I can see the emotional benefit in the emotional struggle of both sides…Because of that it’s hard for me to make a choice…I don’t want to waste time…I don’t want to waste the energy…I don’t want to squander the possibilities…That is the reason why I’m stuck…I’m keeping myself safe by not making a choice…My system believes that if I don’t move forward, then I won’t waste time going the wrong way…I won’t waste energy making the wrong choice…The reality is that when I don’t make a choice, time is passing…When I don’t take action, opportunities are being squandered…Even though my system is trying to keep me safe by not making the wrong choice…It is trying to keep me safe by preventing me from moving forward in the wrong direction…It is OK for me to make a choice…It’s OK for that choice not to be perfect…It is OK that I don’t have all of the information when I’m making a choice…I give myself permission to know that I can make choices even when I have incomplete information…I give myself permission to make choices even when I am not certain about which choice to make…I make choices all the time with incomplete information…And that is OK…I give myself permission to make choices that are imperfect…Knowing that I can learn from those choices…Knowing that I can grow from those choices…It’s not about being perfect in every choice…It’s not about being perfect in every moment…I give myself permission to be easy with myself when I choose…Knowing it is about the sum total of all of my choices that contribute and create my happiness…I give myself permission to know that I can be imperfect and still create a great life…To be happy and healthy and to move forward in a way that I know I can be satisfied with…It is natural to be of two minds…I give myself permission to be easy with being of two minds…And to move forward in the way that makes the most sense for me…Even when each choice is not obvious…I can make choices that create a life that I want…Even in the imperfection of those choices. 

I love my family… I appreciate the members of my family…I only want what is best for them…I want them to be happy…I want them to thrive…Because they are my family…Just because someone is my family does not mean we have the same worldview…Doesn’t mean we believe the same things…It doesn’t mean we see situations in the same way…It doesn’t mean we understand our relationship in the same way…Because this is the case, it can cause tension in my family…It can cause friction in my relationships…There are even times in which my family members make choices that are destructive…Their choices can be destructive to our relationship…And they can be destructive to me…It is hard to be in a situation where I want what is best for my family and I don’t want to interact with some of my family members…Having direct contact with them makes my life harder…Sometimes having direct contact with them causes pain…There’s a part of me that feels like I’m failing if I try to push my family away…There’s a part of me that feels like I am a bad person for not wanting to spend time with my family…Just because they are my family it doesn’t mean that it is good for me to spend time with them…It doesn’t mean that it is good for me to engage with them…Wanting space is not bad…Wanting space is not a failing…Wanting space does not mean that I am a bad family member…It simply means I need to do what is right for me…It only means that I should be taking care of myself…In big and in small ways…I can want what is best for my family and at the same time want them to be a thousand miles away from me…I’m not a bad person for doing that…I’m not failing for feeling that…I can love someone and not want them to be around me…I can want what’s best for them and not interact with them…I need to take responsibility for myself and my life…I need to take responsibility for myself and my experience…It is OK for me to want to keep my family at a distance…Because if I am not taking responsibility for my well-being, nobody else is going to do that for me…It is OK for me to recognize that fact…I’m allowed to love my family and to love them from a distance.

There’s a part of me that sees my past…That sees my past choices…That sees my past commitments…It recognizes how many of them have gone wrong…It isn’t all of them…Or even most of them…But they are the ones that I remember…I can see the consequences of all these choices…I can see how they impacted me…And how they impacted others…I recognize that these choices are being re-lived right now…Because I’m not allowing myself to let go of them…I am afraid if I did let go of them, I will forget their lessons…I’m afraid that if I let go of them, I will repeat them…I’m afraid that if I let go of them, I won’t take responsibility for the consequences…I’m afraid that if I let go of them, I’m not taking responsibility for how I hurt others…It is possible for me to take responsibility for my choices and at the same time acknowledge that I don’t want to repeat them…I am willing to take responsibility…I’m willing to learn the lessons…Stating that I don’t want to repeat them again…Allowing myself to let go of the emotional pain…I keep re-living these moments…So I don’t forget…And to punish myself…For the poor choices that I’ve made…Many of the poor choices I only see as poor choices in hindsight with the benefit of new information…New information I could not have known when I made that poor choice…Because if I had known that information, I could have made a better choice than I did…So when I punish myself for those less informed choices…I’m not being gracious…I’m not being charitable…And I’m not being fair with myself…I am deserve to be fair with myself…I was made to be fair with myself…It is OK to hold myself to a high standard…But it is not fair to punish myself for something that I couldn’t have done better…If I had had more information in many of these circumstances, I would have made a radically different choice…I didn’t have that information…I didn’t know then what I know now…Punishing myself for making the best choice I could have made is not helpful…It is not compassionate…It is actually a penalty that hurts others around me because it gives me an unjust burden to carry around…That makes me less than who I am in this moment…For myself…And others…Not releasing this burden is a much greater are I’m penalizing myself for…I don’t deserve it now and those around me don’t deserve the penalty of me not letting this go. When I let it go I’m not saying I forget…When I let it go I’m not saying I shouldn’t take responsibility…I need to let it go…I am worthy of releasing it…Those around me deserve that I let it go…I don’t have to relive the pain…I don’t have to punish myself…To keep the lesson from this moment…To make better choices…For myself…As I continue to move forward…I give myself permission to forgive myself the poor choices that I have made…That I only see is for because of the new information that I have…Punishing myself and penalizing myself for what I didn’t and couldn’t have known would be poor choices is not helpful…For me, for others, for any part of the universe…Penalizing myself for that is penalizing myself and others…It’s punishing myself and others…In an unjust way…I give myself permission to forgive myself…I forgive myself…For doing the best that I could…Without all the information I needed…I give myself permission to forgive myself for unjustly punishing myself for these misinformed choices…They were nothing more than misinformed choices and I allow myself to move past them without guilt or shame.

Now is so difficult…There’s so much uncertainty in the world…My internal guidance can’t figure out what is coming next…My internal guidance is working overtime to keep me safe because it is dealing with the unpredictable…I really appreciate that it is trying to keep me safe…I appreciate that it’s willing to work so hard…And at the same time it is over-functioning…It’s like a piece of software running in the background on my computer that’s wasting resources and energy…And it means I am at a much lower resource state…I have less energy…I have less focus…It’s not because I’m doing something wrong…I am paying an energetic tax at the beginning of every single day…I’m starting at 80% of my regular resources…This isn’t because I’m doing it wrong…It’s because of the state of the world…And the worry that’s constantly running in the background…Because of this I give myself permission to lower my expectations of what I will achieve in one day…If I were feeling sick, I would be easier on my expectations…If I lost two hours in the middle of the day to deal with a technical problem, I would adjust my expectations…What I’m experiencing right now is no different…It is not my fault…I am not doing something wrong…It’s just the reality of the world right now…I give myself permission to reset my expectations…I also recognize that it’s really important that I pay attention to my system at the moment…That I listen very carefully to what it needs…I listen if it needs rest…I listen if it needs exercise…I listen to see if it needs particular nourishment…I listen to see if it is just exhausted…And not only am I going to listen more carefully…I’m going to respond to my system’s requests…I’m going to be gentle with myself as I tune into my needs…I’m going to be easy with myself as I understand what I actually need…I also recognize that some days I’m not going to have everything I need…Some days I’m just going to be off-kilter…Some days I won’t have the same amount of focus…I give myself permission to be easy with myself…I give myself permission to be gentle with my experience…To be kind to myself…And if I need to stop and reset again tomorrow, I give myself permission to do exactly that…Right now it is harder even when there isn’t an obvious struggle…I give myself permission to be gentle and patient with myself…To take each day as it comes…Managing it in big and small ways…Knowing it is OK not to be perfect.

I am worthy of being here…I’m worthy of taking up space…I’m worthy of existing…I’m worthy of being seen…I’m worthy of being here…I’m worthy of taking action…I’m worthy of creating a good life…I’m worthy of being recognized…I’m worthy of moving forward…I’m worthy of being seen…I’m worthy of taking up space…I’m worthy of being loved…I’m worthy of being recognized…I’m worthy to be here. 

I recognize that my fear is trying to help me…The fear that I’m feeling is helping me to identify danger…The fear that I’m feeling is trying to point out pitfalls…The fear that I’m feeling is trying to keep me safe…I appreciate that my system wants me to be safe…I appreciate that it doesn’t want me to be in danger…But in this particular instance the fear is over functioning…It is working way too hard…It is making it difficult for me to act…The fear is causing fight, flight, freeze, or fog inside me…Experiencing any of those makes it difficult for me to take action…There’s also a part of me that is afraid that if I let go of the fear, I will become too casual…That I’m going to become reckless…I’m going to become thoughtless…It is worried that the only reason that I am taking action is because of the fear that I’m feeling…In this situation feeling urgency is better than feeling fear…Feeling a sense of urgency will help to keep me focused…Feeling a sense of urgency will help to keep me safe…Feeling a sense of urgency will help to keep me on task…I give myself permission to move from a state of fear to one of urgency…Because when I feel urgency I’m able to take action…Without being stuck by the fear…I’m glad the fear is trying to keep me safe…But by keeping me stuck in fight, flight, freeze, or fog…It is holding me back from taking positive action, which is preventing me from being safe…It is much easier for me to take an action from a sense of urgency…It is safer for me to take action from a sense of urgency because I make better choices…I’m glad I want to be safe…Working from a sense of urgency is the easiest way for me to be safe. 

I’m in this moment because of all of the choices that came before it…Choices I made…Choices made by others I know intimately…Choices made by people I will never know…Here I am in this moment…Every choice that has preceded this moment by me and by others has created this moment…Has informed this moment…But those choices do not control this moment…In this moment and in every moment I have the opportunity to choose something different…I can choose to stay in the same place and follow the same patterns…Or I can choose something new…

Some choices will be much harder than others because of the weight and gravity of the choices I have made in the past…And even though previous choices influence the next choice…They do not control the next choice…They do not predetermine the next choice…What is much more important than the choices that led to this moment is the choice that I make next…How I choose to see myself…And how I choose to define my world…That is the most important…Some of the choices I want to make will be difficult because I will be fighting the habits of other choices…The habits of other beliefs…It’s much easier and more neurologically efficient to make the same choice again…That doesn’t mean it has to be the choice I make…My history is important…

The history of the people around me is important…It has shaped me to be who I am…It’s shaped my history…What I choose to be in the next moment is only informed by that…I am not imprisoned by my history…My history is not predestined…Regardless what has gone before, I can choose something new…And in the moment after that, I can choose something new…At any moment I can return to the old patterns…I can return to the old beliefs…And that is a choice I can make…It takes effort…It takes conscious work…

Trusting in something new…I was given that ability to choose something new because I’m worthy of that choice…I don’t learn that choice…I don’t have to deserve that choice…The ability to choose as my birthright…That is what I’ve been made for…At this moment I give myself permission to trust myself enough to make the next choice…That choice will give me feedback…That choice will give me insight…And that will allow me to know what I will choose next…It will inform what I will choose next…I choose to recognize that I am not defined by my past choices…Every choice I make is a new choice and a brand new opportunity.