I Give You Permission

I give you permission.

I do.

I really do.

I give you permission.

I give you permission to say no. I give you permission to say yes. I give you permission to say f*ck no or f*ck yes. I give you permission to leave a toxic relationship. I give you permission to leave the job that is sucking the life out of you.

I give you permission to feel your human emotions.

I give you permission to say goodbye to a friendship that no longer serves you.

I give you permission to eat the cake. Or to say no to the cake that is offered, if that is what you prefer. Literally and figuratively, I give you the permission to say yes or to say no to the cake.

You absolutely do not need my permission. Not in the slightest.

But if you’re anything like me, you might need someone who is willing to validate your intuition.

The last thing I want to do is tell anyone how to live their life. But if you’re someone who, like me, needs someone they trust to tell them it’s okay to do the thing that you already want to and know is right, here it is.

I’m giving you permission.

You’ve probably spent the majority of your life saying yes to things out of feelings of obligation, guilt, or a desire to see that someone else is made happy or proud by your decision. Or maybe you’ve found yourself asking “Can I?” or “May I?” or “Is it okay for me to…?” to people who have no jurisdiction or even the right to have an opinion on how you live your life.

I also want to tell you that it’s okay. It’s okay that you made a mistake. It’s okay that you got angry, or frustrated, or stressed, or embarrassed, and that you showed it. It’s okay that you expressed a human emotion in a setting that may not have been the most “appropriate.” You can forgive yourself for the things you’ve messed up on.

Don’t make excuses for bad behaviors.

But you don’t have to sentence yourself to a lifetime of guilt for a mistake.

I want you to be in a place where you can learn to trust your intuition and give yourself your own validation. But if you stumble on this today and you need to hear it from someone else:

I give you permission.

I forgive you.

It’s okay.

You are enough.

You are not alone.

You are loved.

You are LOVED.