A client said to me, “Eilat… I realised I don’t even give myself twelve minutes.”
She told me she’d been working all day, holding everything together - the kids, the deadlines, everyone else’s needs - and when she finally sat down with a cup of tea, she felt this soft inner tug: “Could I have ten… maybe twelve minutes?”
But almost instantly, the guilt rushed in.
How dare she?
There were dishes.
Emails.
A favour she’d promised someone.
Something urgent she must have forgotten.
Her whole system went into “don’t you dare exist” mode.
But that day - for reasons she couldn’t explain - she paused long enough to hear the truth beneath the noise.
She didn’t want luxury.
She didn’t want escape.
She didn’t want a spa day or an island holiday.
She just wanted twelve minutes to be a person.
And she gave herself those twelve minutes.
She said it felt like oxygen.
She said it made the whole evening easier.
She said something shifted - quietly, but permanently.
“I didn’t wait for permission from anyone else,” she said.
“I gave it to myself. And nothing bad happened.”
This is what the Year of Permission is built on - not grand declarations, not huge reinventions, but tiny moments where you stop abandoning yourself.
Twelve minutes at a time.
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A Tiny Exercise for You This Week
I want you to try her practice in your own way.
Here’s your invitation:
Once this week, give yourself 12 minutes to exist.
Not to improve.
Not to catch up.
Not to be productive.
Just to exist.
Here’s how:
Set a timer for 12 minutes.
Put your phone face down or in another room.
Ask your system, “What would feel good right now?”
Follow that answer gently, even if it’s something simple like:
sitting down
staring out the window
breathing
closing your eyes
walking slowly
doing nothing
And if guilt rises - good.
That’s the part of you that’s been trained not to matter.
Meet it with kindness:
“It’s ok. I’m allowed to exist for twelve minutes.”
Those twelve minutes will teach you more about permission than any book, course, or resolution ever could.
If this small practice stirs something in you - a longing, a softness, a tiny ache - remember that inside The Portal of Permission, we’re spending the entire year practicing exactly this:
Tiny, real, doable ways to choose yourself without fear or apology.
And you’re welcome to join us anytime.
If you loved yourself, how would you spend your 12 minutes today?
