Pia Van Ravestein

Posted 15 Years Ago

"I am 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 chose it
I own everything about me: my body, my feelings,
my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they
be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my
dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own 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 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 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 turn out to be unfitting, I can
discard that which 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, and I am okay."

(--Virginia Satir)