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,
We'll have the special gift of diving more deeply into the promise to prioritize your well-being by embodying your values.
Let's begin by just getting our bodies in sync.
Maybe you want to roll your neck,
Your shoulders,
Your wrists.
Maybe you want to give yourself a little twist.
Just take a moment to tune in with your body.
And once you're ready,
You can bring your eyes down or close them.
Continue to make whatever adjustments feel good along the way.
And let's start to just elongate our breath,
Breathing in and out through the nose.
Imagine just taking a slightly deeper breath than your regular cadence.
Finding your breath down to your belly.
Letting your belly rise and fall.
Feeling how your ribs expand and contract with each breath.
Noticing the air as it enters and exits your nostrils.
Even noticing if you can bring your awareness all the way into noticing your tiny little hairs inside of your nostrils moving with each inhale and exhale.
And now we'll do a light body scan,
First bringing our awareness to our face.
Just noticing anywhere that you can soften,
Perhaps around the forehead,
The eyes,
Jaw.
Really utilize your breath,
Pulling in peace on your inhale and releasing stress on your exhale.
Where you notice that you can release using that exhale as a tool to support letting go.
Now continuing to scan down through your neck and shoulders.
Having full permission to make any adjustments that will serve you in your body.
Realizing how much you can drop your shoulders.
And now continuing through your torso,
Your arms,
Your back.
Just noticing and releasing.
Moving down into your seat and your legs.
And then finally all the way down to your feet and your toes.
On your next inhale,
I invite you to join me in bringing your hands to your heart space.
And begin to bring your awareness right into this powerful vessel of love,
Possibility,
The keeper of your values.
Really noticing everything you can about your heartbeat.
Perhaps you can be aware of its pace,
How loud or soft it may be,
What it feels like in the palm of your hand.
Really taking a moment here to connect with your heart.
This beautiful vessel that beats just for you and is always here for you to return to over and over again.
And in a moment,
I'll begin reciting each line of the Permission to Be Human pledge.
You are invited to repeat it back in your mind or aloud and simply notice what comes up for you.
Truly activating your self-awareness.
From that self-awareness,
You're invited to then activate self-compassion and self-care with whatever comes up.
Simply noticing it and not judging it.
Really just being grateful for this awareness and the choices you get to make as a result of having it.
And if at any time throughout the process you begin to wander in thoughts,
Simply use your breath as a tool to stay grounded in the present moment.
You can only breathe right now,
Not in the future,
Not in the past.
So we can harness our breath as an anchor into the present without judgment,
Just awareness,
Compassion and care.
And we can choose to return to our breath as many times as we need,
As many times as we need.
This is what it means to give ourselves permission to be human.
Let's begin.
Take a big breath here.
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 here.
And for today's practice,
We'll dive more deeply into the promise to prioritize my well-being by embodying my values.
I invite you to bring into your awareness your most recent experience of feeling a sense of inner harmony,
Of alignment,
Of energy,
Really just remembering the last time you felt really good.
Whether that was yesterday or years ago,
It doesn't matter.
Really bring to your awareness a memory of that aliveness.
What did it look like?
What did it sound like?
What did it feel like?
That's sh As you make yourself present to the qualities of this experience,
I invite you to get curious about which of your values it reflected.
Which of your values were being activated and embodied when you experienced this last?
Perhaps connection,
True friendship,
Creativity,
Unity with nature.
Whatever comes up for you is exactly what it's meant to be.
And if you were to narrow it down to one value,
Which value would that be?
It made you feel this sense of wellbeing.
And in meeting yourself where you are today in this moment,
How might you prioritize activating that value in your life?
What might that look like?
Sound like?
What might it feel like if you chose to embody that very value today?
Whether it be in a very simple practice or a big choice,
Really allow yourself to see that possibility as if it were happening right now.
And now with a slight bow of your head towards your heart,
Just take a moment of gratitude.
Gratitude for choosing to show up in this practice,
For choosing to give yourself permission to be human,
For knowing that you can activate your values anytime you want.
Having gratitude for knowing that they're always with you,
Just waiting for the opportunity to be embodied.
What a gift it is to be on this journey to alignment as we harness our values as compass,
Guardrails,
And an anchor all at once,
Truly allowing us to step forward into our most authentic selves.
Not what anybody else wants for us,
But what we know in our hearts is what's meant to be,
Because our energy tells us,
Our energy lets us know when we're on the right path,
When we're activating our core values,
And when we're choosing to be in alignment with our authentic selves.
What a gift that is.
And at the sound of the chime,
I welcome you to take another deep breath,
Really just pulling in all of these positive feelings and exhaling out anything you want that isn't serving you.
And taking as much time as you need,
But slowly coming back,
Wiggling your fingers and toes,
Just taking your time to come back in community here.
And taking as much time as you need,
And come back in community here.
