Oct. 2024: The Power of Permission
I recently received an email from Lisa Olivera through her substack “Human Stuff”, which I highly recommend.
And the format of her writing really resonated with an intention I’ve been practicing and finding more choice, possibility, and potential in.
The intention is the practice of permission.
With a new moon in Libra on 10/2/24, which I won’t attempt to deconstruct what that means, but for context what I will share is that Libra is represented by the scales of harmony and is an air sign and is situated in the season of Autumn (waning sun/light).
And what I’m feeling into is that when we give ourselves permission to take space and connect with support, we can then can give ourselves permission to be with what’s there a little bit more, for it to exist without being labeled good or bad- breathing into it, listening to it, responding to it, holding it in compassion, excavating it; tending to the scales of harmony, which are dynamic, not stagnant.
When we do this, this practice of permission, movement or the flow of life (aka the air element) can flow more freely, and new pathways of choice open versus when we ignore, suppress, or avoid, the pathways grow more rigid, tense, and blocked. *however, sometimes the latter is an intelligent response when we don’t have the time, space, support, and permission to be with what’s there*
Permission and choice are the opposite of trauma and distress. And this couldn’t be a more important topic as collective trauma is real and happening as I write this, and individual trauma has likely touched every one of our lives at some point.
If we seek more expansive ways of being and living that don’t fit into current boxes and definitions of a traumatizing, fragmented culture, then we must dismantle the understandings that underpin it, from the micro to the macro, and address the deep seated hurt that suffocates our aliveness both individually and collectively.
That can’t happen if we don’t give ourselves permission to be supported, permission for our healing to take up space, and to then look at what’s here, right now. We must start where we are with what we have.
As I write this I’m chuckling and noticing, already, how my MSW coursework is starting to shift the work I do here.
Any who, the prompt more or less from Lisa’s email that I have utilized below is: can I say…
Can you give yourself, all parts of yourself, to say what wants to be said?
To find a softening, integration, maybe release, and more choice through that permission.
I shared mine below <3.
Can I Say:
Can I say how grateful I am to every single person who has crossed my path and witnessed me and held me and loved me and accepted me and questioned me and made me question myself. Can I say how hard it is sometimes to write these emails because I get way into my head and overthink it even though I have so many tools for navigating it. Can I say how inspiring and touching it is to see people coming together to help one another and lift one another up in WNC after the devastating hurricane. Can I say how inspired I am by holistic-oriented approaches to stress and trauma because of the hope it cultivates. Can I say how challenging and exhausting it is sometimes to navigate the stress and trauma and the maladaptive patterns and behaviors that come along with it. Can I say how much the practice of permission has shifted my internal ecology.
Can I say I have held myself back in so many ways for so many years while at the same time making strides and leaps. Can I say black and white don’t exist and linear time is too constricting. Can I say how disheartening it is to acknowledge systemic oppression yet how necessary it is for reform. Can I say that so much of what I have in my life currently is everything I’ve been asking for, yet there’s still room for change and growth. Can I say how perplexing and magnificent it is to see life grown in places that once housed death. Can I say that watching this butterfly on the zinnias in the yard is so incredibly tender and beautiful. Can I say how nice it is to sometimes take a deep breath and feel as if some weight or residue just lightened.
Can I say how hard it is sometimes to keep going when you feel like you’re getting nowhere. Can I say how necessary it is to have community with people who support and uplift you. Can I say how revolutionary it is to give yourself permission to be where you are without judgement. Can I saw how frustrating it is sometimes to be in grad school and partake in the limitations of a system that is fragmented, yet there is much I have learned. Can I say how grateful I am for each one of you that has supported me and my work in some way/shape/form over the years.
Can I say how much I love house plants and flower gardens for the way they keep me tuned in with the beauty of life. Can I say that I think we’re all doing the best we can with what we have and there’s room for expanding what we have (capacity). Can I say that I have made mistakes and had offerings I’m not super proud of, but I still learned a lot. Can I say that being human is hard, beautiful, wild, humbling, and divine. Can I say I’m learning so much about my own blocks and barriers and I can’t wait to see what’s on the other side and this place right here is also worthy of my love.
Can I say how scary it is to be a creative entrepreneur and share things with others while at the same time, its life giving. Can I say I’m still navigating what and how I want to offer through this channel of Inner Woven but that it’s becoming very evident to me that the crystallizing of it is happening in small increments of vulnerability and persistence. Can say how good it feels to forget about the existence of my phone. Can I say that there's so much more to say but this feels good for now.
In permission,
Ashlyn