FULL PERMISSION LIVING: December 2019

FULL PERMISSION LIVING

FULL PERMISSION LIVING is an approach to healing and self-actualization, but moreso, it is an approach to living life as it is naturally meant to be lived.
Full Permission Living is the based on the understanding that human beings are, by first nature, sane, loving, cooperative, creative, humorous, intelligent, productive and naturally self-regulating. Full Permission Living rests on the foundation of truth that all people are entitled to live pleasure-filled, spontaneous, lives without guilt, shame or oppressive inner rules and prohibitions. Indeed, we are meant to live with full inner permission to follow our natural inner guidance and our inborn pleasure instinct to seek out gratification in all of our actions and endeavors, and that such a way of living always benefits those around us and those that we love.
On this blog, we will explore ways in which we can reconnect to our true selves and live lives of physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and material fulfillment, while remaining in a state of harmony with others and with the world around us. We will discover the truth that life is meant to get better and better as time progresses, that growing up, maturing and aging is not at all a deteriorating process, but rather one in which the individual becomes more and more potent and powerful in all areas until the very end of a lifetime. We can discover that everyone has everything already built in that is necessary to achieve the fulfillment of their deepest desires. And it's no secret!
Contact PETER LOFFREDO at: fpliving@aol.com

When I was growing up, I loved watching "roasts," gatherings of famous comedians, at a place called the "Friars Club," where the guest of honor, also famous, would get made fun of relentlessly by the panel of sarcasm "experts." (Presidential Candidates nowadays also get roasted - or used to - at the annual Alfred E. Smith Dinner in a similar way, though definitely less expertly.)

These roasts were really funny, and I always noted two things about them - the roastee always seemed to be having so much fun being humiliated, and the roasters seemed to have so much genuine affection for the person they were lambasting with their perfected barbs.

Well, at a gathering of friends at a Winter Solstice celebration not long ago, I got roasted! Yep. The idea spoke through one of our guests that I could use a good roasting, and so, on the fly at the end of dinner, I became the guest of honor and my friends roasted me. By the time it was over, my gut ached and tears were coming down because I was laughing so hard.

Why was/is it so funny to be made fun of?

Well, for me personally, it's been a consistent message from mentors over the years that I take myself too seriously. Whatever my gifts may be, being able to laugh at myself is one of the highest among them. And as a person who knows that one key to happiness and self-actualization is to dismantle one's ego, I have welcomed people into my life (including my best friends of 30-40 years) who are willing to make fun of me. Relentlessly. With love. Inevitably, when I get roasted, I end of rolling on the floor in gut-clenching laughter. It's a great tonic.

As John Travolta's version of Michael the Archangel said in the movie, "Michael":

"You gotta laugh; it's the key to loving."