"I am me,"

I am Me
by Virginia Satir

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 came to write this poem when she was working with an angry fifteen-year-old girl who had a lot of questions about herself and what life meant.
It's a lesson for all of us at any age.

The name Virginia Satir may not sound familiar to most unless you have some knowledge of the history of hypnosis. A therapist who used a combination of different techniques to help individuals and families solve daily issues. She helped them to find the root of their problems and to increase their self-esteem and self-worth as individuals as well as being part of a family.



Virginia's heart was her essence, and she developed a highly non-judgmental egalitarian way of teaching people all over the world to communicate more effectively with one another and to raise their self-esteem. She believed that humans are, at the core, good, and spoke of the positive intention behind every behaviour, regardless of appearances.