I remember reading about permission slips in Brené Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection and then later in her book Dare To Lead.
Permission slip – A permission slip is when a person in authority allows someone to do
something. For example, when a parent signs a paper allowing their child to go on a field trip.
For personal permission slips, you are in charge of your own behavior – so you’re giving yourself
permission to feel or act a certain way. It is setting an intention for how you want to behave in
difficult situations
Writing Permission Slips
As regular readers of my blog might know, my word of the year for 2021 is ‘Yes’. And while I’ve been saying ‘yes’ to many things, I’ve also realized that in saying ‘yes’ to somethings, I’ve had to say ‘no’ to others. Most of all, I’ve been giving myself permission to embrace somethings, let go of somethings and say a big ‘yes’ to myself.
As a reminder to myself, I’m going to be creating a board on which I stick post-it notes that are permission slips. Here are some of the things I’m going to be writing on them.
I’m giving myself permission to:
- Spend the first half hour of my day focusing on affirmations and writing my Morning Pages.
- Rest and relax when I feel tired or not up to doing things
- Put my creative work first
- Spend time learning and working on my writing.
- Not be compelled to post when I don’t feel like it.
- Ask for help when I need it
- Enjoy what I do
- Let go of FOMO

If you were to write a permission slip for yourself today what would it say?
Complete this sentence.
I’m giving myself permission to ____________________________

Last Friday’s prompt for Kate Motaung’s Five Minute Friday was ‘permission‘. I’ve had this post in my mind since then but didn’t write or publish it so I’ve decided to combine it with my Monday Musings post today. I’m joining Anita Ojeda’s Inspire Me Monday link up.
Learning to say no in order to say to yes. As someone who always questions herself…and always overthinks things, this can be a challenge. I need to write a slip giving me permission to be more spontanteous. Just a little:)
What a great idea! Mine would give me permission to rest when my body and mind needs it.
I’m learning to give myself permission more often too Corinne – and I think for me it’s to stop caring about the opinions of others – people are very quick to judge but that’s really not my problem unless I allow it to be. I liked all your permissions on the list.
I think I’d give myself permission to just go to bed when I’m tired and not stay up until all hours with family members when I’m on vacation. I still wake up early, but then I get sleep-deprived!
I give myself permission to be who I am in this moment and enjoy the journey, trusting God will get me to where He wants me.
I love your word for the year. We need some “yes” in the midst of too many “no”s lately. I give myself permission to stop comparing myself to the person I was 5 years or 10 years or 15 years ago. Every day is a blank slate.
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I give myself permission to sleep peacefully. It has been years now that I am unable to sleep well at night. I must make my personal permission list including more points. It will be a good idea for my next post.
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Yes! I remember reading about permission slips from Brene Brown too (love her). Your permission slips REALLY resonate with me too! Hmm…maybe I need to create my own now and stick them up??? I think my first one should be: “It’s okay not to finish everything today.” I’ve had a version of that on my calendar for a few weeks now, and it’s been helpful to know it’s okay to STOP and call a day ‘done’, finished or not with my projects.
So glad you added this to our One Word Linkup and joined our Facebook group too! You’re a wonderful addition to our community, Corinne.
I’m giving myself permission to stop feeling guilty when I can’t manage all the tasks I had planned for the day .To take time off and rest and revive myself
This is so good and all so true! Mine would be Permission to skip housework (today) and enjoy the sunshine!