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 suspend judgment and ignite compassion.
Let's begin.
As we begin today's practice,
Let's just start by giving our bodies some love.
Maybe you want to give your neck a roll,
Your wrists,
Your arms,
Your shoulders,
Your ankles,
Whatever feels good.
And really giving yourself permission that if you feel something,
Like I just felt something in my neck,
And so I was like,
Oh,
I felt that.
Now I'm going to rub my neck.
Thank you neck for telling me that you needed a little rub.
I'm grateful that I can respond to it.
That is an example of self-awareness,
Self-compassion,
And self-care.
It's like self-awareness,
Oh,
I'm aware I have pain in my neck right here.
Compassion is like,
Okay,
So I'm going to do something about it.
And self-care is really the act of now taking my hands and rubbing my neck a little bit.
And I encourage you all to do that throughout this entire practice,
Anytime your body gives you a message that it would like some love.
Because one of my favorite quotes,
It's an indigenous quote,
And it's really that our body speaks to us in whispers,
And when we don't listen,
It screams.
And so the more we can pay attention to those whispers,
Right,
Our bodies are the keepers of our soul.
So giving us messages all the time.
You know,
My husband had really bad allergies.
Like I don't know,
He's like three days ahead of me in his journey in this.
And I said,
You know,
Babe,
I think we're working too much.
I think this is not just allergies.
I think we're working too much.
And so then I got a little bit of that own medicine myself.
And like,
Oh,
Yeah,
Maybe I'm working too much too.
That's what's going on here.
My body is not whispering right now.
It's not screaming,
But it's somewhere in between.
All right.
So as you slowly now bring yourself to stillness,
Knowing you can always move and make adjustments throughout the practice,
You can close your eyes or gaze down,
Whatever is going to serve you best.
And just begin by elongating your breath.
Even if it's just a little bit deeper than your regular cadence.
And if your nasal passage is clear,
You can breathe in and out through your nose.
And really feel yourself sending your breath all the way down to your belly.
Notice how your rib cage expands and contracts.
Notice the temperature of the air as it enters and exits your body.
And now let's just use the affirmation,
I breathe in peace on your inhale and I breathe out stress on your exhale.
I breathe in peace.
I breathe out stress.
Now,
Bringing your awareness to your face,
Just noticing anywhere that you can soften,
Perhaps around the eyes,
Forehead,
Jaw.
And utilizing,
Again,
I breathe in peace and I breathe out stress,
Really utilizing that exhale to let go of any place that you notice you can release.
Now scanning down through your neck and shoulders,
Noticing if you can even drop your shoulders just slightly.
Down through your torso,
Your arms.
Again,
Making any adjustments that feel good,
Just responding to your body's whispers.
This is your first invitation for self-awareness,
Self-compassion,
And self-care.
Breathing down through your seat and your legs.
And then finally all the way down to your feet.
Really feeling the connection of your feet and the ground beneath you,
Knowing that you are grounded right here and right now in this present moment.
Now,
Feeling almost as if a string were being pulled from the top of your head,
Right from the center,
Really elongating your spine,
Feeling your heart leading you,
Your chest forward,
Really creating this open vessel for the energy to move through you.
Continuing with your long,
Deep breath.
And on your next inhale,
I invite you to join me with bringing your hands into your heart space.
And start to really connect with anything you notice about your heart.
Perhaps it's the cadence,
Maybe even the feeling of your heart in your hand.
Just noticing it and having gratitude.
And in a moment,
I'll begin to recite the Permission to Be Human pledge.
And more than likely,
You will wander in thought throughout this practice.
That's a part of being human.
And so if any time that happens,
All you need to do is simply notice it and then bring yourself back to the present moment.
There are two tools on us at all times to make that happen.
One is our breath.
We only breathe right now,
Not in the past and not in the future.
So anytime you wander in thought,
Just come back to your breath and it will anchor you in the present.
Similarly,
Our hearts only beat right now.
So you can also return to your beating of your heart as an anchor in the gift of this present moment.
And then lovingly take all the time you need to come back to my voice and back to the practice as many times as you need.
So let's take another deep breath here and then we'll 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.
Now let's take another deep breath.
And for today's practice,
We'll go more deeply into the promise to suspend judgment and ignite compassion.
Considering where you are today,
Where might you be overly judgmental of yourself?
Perhaps you're being critical or harsh.
Basically notice an area of your life where you have the opportunity to suspend judgment and ignite compassion.
And in meeting yourself where you are,
You're being critical.
What might it sound like to respond to that judgment with love,
With support,
With words of healing and compassion?
What might that sound like?
What might it sound like?
And now allow yourself to receive that as the truth that you can truly be your own best friend by knowing what's going on in your mind and responding to it from a place of love and not fear.
What are the words you so want to hear right now about this area of your life that you're being judgmental?
And allow yourself to hear them from you.
You get to give yourself this gift,
This gift of permission to be human.
Allow yourself to receive this love right now from your heart right back to your heart.
And now just taking a slight bow of your head towards your heart.
Just in gratitude for choosing to show up today in this practice,
For choosing to go inward for healing,
For choosing to give yourself permission to be human in a world where it is so easy to not.
What a gift it is to be in this community with you today and for the ability to choose,
To choose a new story,
A new possibility,
A new habit,
A new response in how we can truly suspend judgment and ignite compassion within ourselves.
What a true gift that is.
And at the sound of the chime,
I invite you to take a final deep breath,
Really pulling in all of those feelings of possibility,
Grounded in compassion.
And on your exhale,
Releasing any final pieces of judgment that you really want to feel move their way out of your body.
And when you're ready,
You can slowly bring yourself back,
You can wiggle your fingers,
Your toes.
Maybe you want to roll your wrists,
Your neck again,
Whatever's going to feel good to slowly bring yourself back into this community.
