Jess has always been the textbook 'good girl'.

Polite. Helpful. Always available. Always smiling.

For years she's said yes to things that made her stomach knot.

She swallowed her needs with a smile and called it "being kind."

She was exhausted - but still felt guilty for not doing enough.

Jess has been the reliable one her whole life.

The peacemaker. The helper. The considerate one.

She's the one who wrote thank-you notes.

The one who always took on the blame for things if they went wrong.

When she joined The Portal of Permission two months ago she told me:

“I don’t even really know what I want. I just know I’m tired of making everyone else comfortable at the cost of myself.”

She didn’t want to burn it all down. She just wanted to stop disappearing inside her own life.

But she felt anxious about it.

She said:

“What if I'm not the right person to be a founding member? What if I get it wrong?”

But in the last ten weeks, something has softened.

She's begun asking the Love Question:

If I loved myself, what would I choose to do now?

And slowly…

• She has started saying no - kindly, clearly, without a PowerPoint presentation of reasons.

• She has rested without guilt.

• She's chosen food that nourished rather than punished her.

• She's practicing not twisting herself to be likable, and started learning to be honest.

The other day she said:

“I used to think I had to be good to be worthy.

Now I’m learning to be real. And I’ve never felt more whole.”

That’s what this work is about.

Remember that.

It's not a self-improvement project.

It is a coming-home.

To you.

If you’ve spent years being what others needed...

But you’re now ready to be who you are...

You're in the right place.

You don’t need more perfection.

You need permission.

To just be you.

As you are.

If you loved yourself, how would you give yourself permission to be yourself now?