Welcome to this practice in giving yourself permission to be human.
I'm Mary Beth Hyland,
Author of Permission to be Human,
The Conscious Leader's Guide to Creating a Values-Driven Culture,
And teacher here on Insight Timer.
The following practice was previously a live guided meditation here on Insight Timer that I've now repurposed so that you can listen to it on demand.
Should it resonate with you,
I invite you,
Please join us for our future weekly live sessions.
You can also check out the course and join our official Insight Timer group here called,
You guessed it,
Permission to be Human.
Each of these practices is based on the Permission to be Human pledge,
Which is six lines of statements that are intended to be received as promises made to yourself so that you can shift from being overly critical,
Unkind,
And judgmental of yourself to then activating higher levels of self-awareness,
Self-compassion,
And self-care.
Throughout the practice,
You're invited to notice what your thoughts,
Feelings,
And physical sensations are when you hear each line of the pledge,
And then meet that awareness with self-compassion,
Particularly if you find that you're triggered into judgmental thoughts of yourself.
Simply choose to observe those thoughts and feelings instead of being carried away by them.
From that place of self-awareness,
You can then ignite self-compassion by simply noticing and responding with a statement like,
I hear you.
I know this is an area of my life that I want to get more curious about,
And I'm grateful to have that awareness now so that I can keep giving myself permission to be human.
And finally,
Igniting that self-care in a form of taking action towards what arose.
How can you meet yourself where you are and take a baby step towards a new possibility?
That is the gift of giving yourself permission to be human.
And in today's practice,
You'll have the special gift of diving more deeply into the promise to set healthy boundaries to protect your energy.
Let's begin.
So with that,
I'd love for us to get started in this practice together.
Wherever you are,
Just start to come to stillness by first getting acclimated in your body.
So making whatever adjustments feel good,
Feeling a little hot,
Tuning in to what is going to serve you.
Maybe you want to roll your neck,
Your shoulders,
Your wrists,
Your ankles.
Maybe even give yourself a twist,
Whatever feels good and just letting your body know like,
Hey,
Here we are in practice together as one in this present moment.
And now you can make a choice of whether you want to have your hands facing up or down,
Up for receiving energy,
Down for grounding.
And if you haven't yet,
You can gaze down or close your eyes.
Again,
It's whatever is going to serve you best.
And begin to take long,
Deep breaths in and out of your nose as long as the passage is clear.
Taking a moment to really notice the air as it enters and exits your nostrils.
Notice the temperature as it changes with each inhale and exhale.
With these elongated breaths,
Really sending that breath down into the belly,
Feeling your belly rise and fall.
Feeling your rib cage expand and contract.
And just reminding yourself that the only place you need to be is right here,
Right now.
Bring your awareness to your face.
Notice anywhere that you can choose to soften,
Perhaps around your forehead,
Your eyes,
Or your jaw.
Taking advantage of your powerful breath and on each exhale,
Just releasing any places you may be tightening or holding on,
Allowing it to fully soften.
Bringing your awareness now down into your neck and shoulders.
Continuing to make whatever adjustments feel good for what you're hearing in your body.
Really feeling your shoulders drop,
Even if it's just a microshift.
Now,
Continuing to scan your body,
Your shoulders and chest,
Your back,
Your arms.
Just noticing any places in your torso where you can send your breath and let go.
Down through your seat and your thighs.
Always doing something about what you hear.
So if you hear from your body,
It would serve you to give your leg a little rub,
A little stretch,
A little twist.
Whenever you're hearing your body say,
I'd like some of that,
Make sure you respond.
Let your body know that you're listening to the whispers so it doesn't have to scream.
Continuing with this scan down through your shins and calves all the way to your feet.
Really feeling your feet now connected to the ground or whatever surfaces beneath you.
And now envisioning as if a string were coming through the top of your head,
Really pulling your spine up,
Your neck up,
Your head up into a place of really being able to receive this energy.
And on your next inhale,
I invite you to bring your hands to your heart center and begin to connect the beating of your heart to the palm of your hand.
What do you notice about your heartbeat?
Perhaps you can feel its cadence,
How strong or faint it may be.
Just taking a moment here to notice whatever you can about this beautiful part of you,
This heart that beats just for you,
This keeper of your values,
Of your love,
Of your dreams and desires.
Taking a moment to honor this vessel of love and light within.
And just like our breath,
Our heart only beats in the present,
Not in the past and not in the future.
And so anytime throughout this practice,
Should your mind wander,
You can reconnect to your heartbeat,
Giving it your full attention,
Lovingly,
Generously,
Compassionately.
You can choose to use your breath as an anchoring tool,
Knowing just like the heart,
We only breathe right now.
And part of our experience in giving ourselves permission to be human is recognizing that our mind will wander.
It is a part of what makes us human.
So when we notice,
We simply return to our breath,
Return to the beating of our heart over and over and over again,
As many times as we need.
In a moment,
I will begin to recite the permission to be human pledge.
And your invitation is to recite each line back to yourself after it's spoken.
And simply notice what comes up for you.
Should you find yourself becoming overly critical or unkind,
Choose to simply notice,
Ignite self-compassion and self-care,
Being grateful for this awareness,
Knowing we must always meet ourselves where we are in order to get to where we want to be.
Let's take a deep breath in and out.
And let's begin.
I promise to honor what makes me perfectly imperfect.
I promise to meet myself where I am,
Not where I want to be.
I promise to suspend judgment and ignite compassion.
I promise to set healthy boundaries to protect my energy.
I promise to prioritize my well-being by embodying my values.
And in doing so,
I promise to give myself and others permission to be human.
Another deep breath in here and out.
And today,
We'll go more deeply into the promise of setting healthy boundaries to protect my energy.
Where in your life is your energy currently being drained,
Perhaps even depleted?
Simply notice without judgment what comes up for you.
You bring your awareness towards an area of opportunity to set healthy boundaries.
And what might a boundary look like for you in meeting yourself where you are,
Not where you want to be?
What might a first baby step into a direction of being more intentional with protecting your energy?
What might that be?
I promise to set healthy boundaries to protect my energy.
Perhaps this is a conversation with yourself or with someone else.
Perhaps it's an opportunity to say no thank you or ask for help.
Perhaps it's an opportunity to be more present to the stories that you're telling yourself about this situation.
That you can change to serve you and ignite this opportunity to truly protect what matters most.
Now see yourself taking that action,
That small baby step in meeting yourself where you are.
What would that look like?
What would it feel like?
What would it sound like?
Allow yourself to play that through as if it were happening right now.
Now bringing a slight smile to your face,
Bowing your head towards your heart.
Taking a moment to have gratitude for yourself,
For showing up today,
For showing up in this practice.
For recognizing that everything is a choice and knowing that you can choose to set healthy boundaries to protect your energy.
And you can do that one step at a time without judgment of pace.
Smiling now because you know what a gift this is.
A gift that you get to keep opening over and over and over again.
As you go on your journey to giving yourself permission to be human.
And at the sound of the chime I invite you to take a deep inhalation in,
Pulling in all of these positive,
Powerful,
High vibration thoughts and feelings.
Really bringing them in and a deep exhale out of anything left that you want to release before we complete the practice together.
And when you're ready you can slowly and graciously bring yourself back.
You can wiggle your fingers and toes.
Maybe give your neck a roll.
Whatever is going to serve you in being kind and coming back.
