Permission

The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy. - Abraham Maslow

There is a lot to be said in our culture at the moment about dread, toxicity and corruption. I often feel that I need to start most conversations with an acknowledgement that I know just how bad everything is, how much injustice is happening and that I have my eyes open to the suffering of others. Even if at that moment I am having a good day or feel in a good place, as I greet another I struggle not to revert into the socially accepted angst of a good liberal therapist. 

Gratitude and joy have become taboo, an indication that you are one of the bad ones, just sitting back on their privilege and ignoring the suffering of others. 

But what if all this signalling of our moral conscientiousness is costing us the real change we would be capable of if connected to pleasure, peace and love?

For me, this is where awe enters the chat. My whole life has been a search for awe and how it makes me feel. From my time in mystical religion, my relationship with creativity, my endless phone scrolling to my relationship with psychedelics, I have been ravenous for this experience of merging with something bigger and more beautiful than myself. Losing myself in a poem or a tree or a trance has been a lifeline for me. When I can’t find it, I grieve. When it’s here, I bow at its feet whilst making no sudden movements, lest it scurry into the shadows again. 

So if you are like me, drawn to the deep being of presence and beauty, here is your permission to keep going. You can let go of the impulse to prove you are sad and mad enough to be considered a good person here in the year 2025. Instead, let yourself feel what you feel. You belong here with us already. We need the gifts of your depth not the skillful social performance of morality you feel pressure to give. 

As Byron Katie so eloquently said, “..we are just waiting for one teacher, just one to give us permission to be who we are now…You appear as this, big or small, straight or bent, That’s such a gift to give. The pain is in withholding it. Who else is going to give us permission to be free if not you?”

Reference

Kaufman, S. B. (2025). Rise above: Overcome a victim mindset, empower yourself, and realize your full potential. Penguin Random House

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