Ownership of Me

       "In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me – everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone choose it – I own everything about me – my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or to myself.  I own 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 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 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 authentically me – If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought and felt turned out to be unfitting, I can discard that which I feel is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent 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 & I am okay."

Virginia Satir