I’ve got three questions for you to decide if this episode has some gold for you…
- Where are you waiting for permission, before you can take that next step forward?
- Where do you tell yourself you have permission – but still act small or unsure?
- Where are you waiting on an external authority to say YES, before you begin?
Most women have a problem with permission.
Not feeling like we have the right, the readiness or the resources to take that next step forward.
In today’s blog we’re exploring the 3 key reasons women are waiting for permission. It might be permission to own your desires and your dreams, permission in the bedroom or the boardroom, permission to do things your way & break some rules – the embodied way.
1. Your body never received the permission slip
It’s easy to think “Yes, I have permission”, but it’s quite another thing to embody it.
Our mind is capable of understanding/believing all kinds of ideals thoughts like:
+ You are enough
+ You have permission
+ You are beautiful
But when our body doesn’t follow, when the belief isn’t integrated somatically into our cells, it’s just magical thinking.
This is the first biggest challenge for permission – Your body never received the permission slip
Our body is a barometer of who we truly are. What we are holding in there is what really defines the decisions that we make, the actions that we take and how we spend our time.
If you didn’t give your body a chance to feel the permission slip. If you didn’t allow your body to receive the permission slip fully. Then it’s like the permission slip was written in invisible ink. A fleeting thought or idea which was here one minute, gone the next.
When we want a belief or a permission to be true indefinitely we’ve got to allow it to land in the body.
But that’s hard when there’s something or someone standing in the way of your permission slip…
Experience has shown the second biggest challenge to receiving permission is that the power of permission is with someone else
2.The power of permission is with someone else
Perhaps it’s your partner. Or your boss. Or your teacher. Or your friend.
Perhaps you’re waiting for them to give you the okay before you can step forward and say yes.
I know far too often in past relationships I waited for my partner to give me permission to be sensual, and denied my own authority.
I know in the past I’ve waited for my teachers to give me permission before moving forward and screwed with my own confidence because I was looking for something that was always mine to give.
This is my body. I am my ultimate authority. If I can’t find the permission and the POWER in here first, then I’ll actually never authentically receive it from someone else.
The power of your circumstances is NEVER with another person.
Whether it’s a permission slip you desire.
Or new boundary that needs to be made.
The permission is ALWAYS yours FIRST.
But it’s going to be challenging to give yourself permission if there’s something shameful or sinful standing between you & your permission
3.There’s something shameful or sinful standing between you & your permission
Permission is an act of power. And the most frequent challenge standing between women and their power is shame and sin.
This is a challenge I know well.
Recently I was pondering if I had permission to do a certain something in my business. I mean – who was I to claim/be/do this wild thing that I wanted.
Part of me was waiting for permission from an external source before I could move ahead. Until I realized I was waiting for that person‘s blessing, to absolve the shame and sin I felt.
There was an icky, uncomfortable, unflattering part of me that felt ashamed for wanting what I wanted. There was a heaviness in my heart that made me wonder if what I was doing was okay. And I didn’t want to feel those feelings.
Most of us avoid the uncomfortable sensations in our body. And when we do, we shut down that shame and lock it away.
Yet it’s that exact uncomfortable shame and sin that’s standing in the way of our power, and our permission.
So instead of waiting for an external authority to tell me yes, Jenna you have permission to do this. I decided to instead confront and commune with the uncomfortable shame I felt.
To tenderly unravel why I felt secretly felt the way I did – and to liberate it.
The practice I used for this is an embodied movement practice called Primal Feminine Flow, if you’re interested in starting your embodied journey it’s a digital download you can grab on our website at www.jennaward.co/flow
As I sat with this shame and shifted it through my body. I realized my own permission was already here – and this is the permission that I need FIRST, before anyone else’s.
This is key.
If you haven’t liberated what’s standing in your way. If you haven’t authentically accessed your own permission FIRST.
If you haven’t embodied that permission slip somatically.
Then no one can help you. No one else’s permission slip is going to help or going to stick.
Permission is an inside job first.
I’d love to hear from you. Where are you waiting for permission in your life right now – and what is required for you to embody your own permission slip first?
+ Is it simply a case of feeling it fully in your body?
+ Do you need to take back the power of your permission
+ Or is there shame standing in the way?
Join our conversation in the comments & thank you so much for joining us here at the School of Embodied Arts for this episode. If you’d like more episodes like this delivered to your inbox just enter your details below & we’ll be in touch.
