Permission Slips

Have you ever given yourself permission to feel something?

Not just to do something - eat a cookie, buy something - 

but to feel an emotion you're afraid to feel?

In her book Rising Strong, 

Brene Brown talks about permission slips. 

She writes, "Give yourself permission to feel emotion, get curious about it, pay attention to it, and practice. [...] We're not going to recognize emotion if we don't feel like we have permission to feel emotion."

She says her jean pockets are stuffed with permission slips.

I put mine on the back of my phone. 

This week I was feeling all sorts of emotions,

and I gave myself permission to feel overwhelmed and tired - 

which helped a ton.

But then, just 5 minutes ago, I realized, 

I'd only given myself permission to feel the hard things. 

I hadn't given myself permission to feel excited, happy,

or any other positive emotion.

So that's what's going on the back of my phone case now.

Permission to feel excited, overwhelmed, happy, and tired. 

Permission to feel it all.