Celeste hereby has permission to.......

Writing yourself a permission slip to do what you want is such an under-rated practice don't you think?

I recently came across an old Instagram story of mine where I quote something I found in a poetry book. I vowed to make this quote my life’s mission.

I then promptly forgot all about both the quote and the accompanying life mission.

The quote is from the book Writing Poetry from the Inside Out and goes like this,

“The happiest, most successful, most fulfilled people I know are the ones who, over time, gave themselves the most permissions—in all areas of their lives. Guided by the compass of an inner truth, they did not wait for others to tell them what it was okay to do, or wait for others to tell them which steps to take. Through trial and error, they learned how to experiment with their lives. And maybe this is worth under-scoring. The best writers give themselves the most permissions. The happiest, most fulfilled people give themselves the most permissions. The two go hand in hand.”

Wow. Let’s just go ahead and get that tattooed right on our bodies, amIright?

Coming across this quote a few years ago was one of those “Ah-ha! Just what I needed!” kind of moments.

Coming across it again last month was another one of those “Ah-ha! Just what I needed!” moments.

My Instagram commentary on that quote went like this, “I’ve made huge strides in the permissions I give myself the past few years, but I want to go even deeper. I want to be so ridiculously deep in internal permissions that I completely forget about external permission.”

In trying to not forget my new’s life’s mission to be absolutely spewing self-permission, I’ve taken on the practice of writing myself weekly, or sometimes daily permission slips.

I feel liberated every. single. time. It doesn’t get old. With every single permission comes renewed liberation.

It’s been a few weeks of this practice now, and I am continuously surprised to find how quickly and easily I box myself into limitation.

Usually it’s by some goal or standard I set for myself, sometimes in the name of social acceptance, other times in the name of ambition, typically having something to do with identity.

Every single week I discover more boxes I create for myself.

Boxed-up Celeste must then appeal to CEO Celeste to issue an official permission slip to free boxed Celeste from the box that aspiring Celeste created for herself.

Being a human is a rather silly and exhausting practice is it not?

In any case, here is a small sampling of actual permission slips I have issued myself lately:

Celeste hereby has permission to:

• let her lawn grow wild, weedy and uncurated

• write real shitty fiction

• write real shitty poetry

• paint real shitty paintings

• hate her husband, question him, say the wrong thing, be angry

• love her husband without holding back, trust him, let things go

• be unhealthy

• be healthy

• post things that nobody reads

• disgust her friends with her messy house

• not just tolerate but celebrate her departure from social norms (out of date kitchen, extra 15 pounds, missing her kids soccer games) - to see these deviations as a grand favor to her peers to give them permission to celebrate their own society deviations.

Ah freedom.

Tastes good.

I would love it if we could make the comment section a symphony of freedom. What is something you’ve wanted to let go of or not care about? What is something you want to do? Please give yourself permission to do it in the comments.