Introducing... Permission Slips

Submissions open

Hello (again, if you’re returning!) 👋🏾 I’m Ingrid and I publish Permission. I share words about my world as a grieving woman, in midlife, as a mother of boys, as an Australian living in The Netherlands, and all the nuance (and mess) that goes along with these. To know more you are welcome to check out my About page, and to read more you are welcome to check out Permission.

Before I launched Permission on Substack, I hesitated for a long time. I lurked, for a long time. It wasn’t because I was scared of a new platform, or because it didn’t seem friendly (it absolutely does) - it was because I was waiting for permission. I was waiting for someone to tell me it was ok for me to do something different, for me to do something that wasn’t related to my business, for me to do something that brought me joy.

As you can likely appreciate, there was no one waiting to give me permission. And that’s great, in a way, because it forced me to give myself permission. I had to make the decision for myself, take the steps myself, believe in myself.

And it’s made the path all the more sweet because I chose it for myself.

But I didn’t do it in isolation. I was lucky to be surrounded by inspiring women who had taken the leap, made the change, and chosen to do a new thing. Hearing their stories, understanding their own struggles to give themselves permission, and watching them fly once they did, gave me the nudge I needed.

Photo by Arthur Poulin on Unsplash

And now I want to open the floor up and share some of those stories. If you have ever:

• held back from doing something because you were waiting for permission

• continued doing something you wanted to quit because you were waiting for permission

• resisted saying or feeling something because you were waiting for permission

then I would love to hear from you.

Is this for you?

There’s no story too big or too small. There’s no pre-requisites to make you eligible or ineligible. You don’t need to have a big subscriber list, though of course you’re welcome if you do. You don’t need to be regularly posting or writing on Substack or anywhere else, but of course you’re welcome if you are a regular Substack poster. You don’t need to be a writer, or any other kind of artist, though of course all artists are welcome.

This is for anyone who has given themselves permission to do anything, at any time, for any reason.

How does it work?

I’ve created a nifty little form with the details, which you can access using this button:

Essentially you have two options:

• Option 1: complete the Permission Slips interview
  or

• Option 2: submit a free-writing or free-creating piece in response to the topic of permission. It can be in written, visual, audio format (essentially any format supported by Substack)

Once you’ve sent through your submission, I’ll be in touch via email about when it will go live. And if you change your mind or have a crisis of confidence between hitting submit and it being published, that’s completely fine, just get in touch.

So, will you share your story with us? And in doing so, give other people the courage to create their own permission slips?