Helping words from Virginia Satir

I AM ME

In all the world, there is no one else
exactly like me.
There are persons who have some parts
like me,
but no one adds up exactly like me.
Therefore, everything that comes out of
me is authentically mine because I alone
chose it.
I own everything about me – my body,
including everything it does;
my mind, including all its thoughts and
ideas;
my eyes, including the images of all they
behold;
my feelings, whatever they may be –
anger, joy, frustration, love, disappoint-
ment, excitement;
my mouth, and all the words that come
out of it, polite, sweet or rough, correct
or incorrect;
my voice, loud or soft;
and all my actions, whether they be to
others or to myself.

I own my fantasies, my dreams, my
hopes, my fears.
I own all my triumphs and successes, all
my failures and mistakes.
Because I own all of me, I can become
intimately acquainted with me.
By so doing I can love me and be
friendly with me in all my parts.

I can then make it possible for all of me
to work in my best interests.
I know there are aspects about myself
that puzzle me, and other aspects that I
do not know.
But as long as I am friendly and loving
to myself, I can courageously and
hopefully look for the solutions to the
puzzles and for ways to find out more
about me.
However I look and sound, whatever I
say and do, and whatever I think and
feel at a given moment in time is me.
This is authentic and represents where I
am at that moment in time.
When I review later how I looked and
sounded, what I said and did, and how I
thought and felt, some parts may turn
out to be unfitting.

I can discard that which is unfitting, and
keep that which proved fitting, and in-
vent something new for that which I discarded.
I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do.
I have the tools to survive, to be close
to others, to be productive, and to make
sense and order out of the world of
people and things outside of me.
I own me,
and therefore I can engineer me.
I am me
and I am okay.