One of my favorite quotes I used to read aloud in my yoga classes was a passage from Mark Nepo’s Book of Awakening on the pesky pattern of saying yes (to clients, partners, invites, parents, friends, dates) when we really mean no.
The flip side of this is just as sabotaging:
– Mark Nepo
..how many times, once trained in self-sacrifice, do we have the opposite conversation with ourselves; our passion for life saying, yes, yes, YES and our practical guardedness saying, don’t be foolish, be realistic, don’t leave yourself unprotected.
So my question to you is: do you honor and listen to your instincts? Your intuition?
That (sometimes small) voice inside that’s drawing you to a situation, person, opportunity.
That’s asking you to take a bigger risk and jump far, FAR outside of your comfort zone?
OR do you turn the other cheek because to hear it means you have to be uncomfortable (temporarily) with a certain area of your life?
I get it – sometimes it’s much easier to pull the covers back over your head and not risk rocking the boat, letting a friend down on an invite, feeling your feelings or disappointing (fill in the blank) by choosing to go in direction A rather than for what YOU really want.
One of the best ways to begin listening to – and more importantly TRUSTING yourself and saying yes when it’s a HELL YES, and no when something isn’t in alignment – is to tune into yourself on a regular basis.
And this body scan meditation helps you do just that.
In less than 10 minutes, you can pick up on your patterns – what’s “eating youâ€, where you’re carrying stress, where you’re holding back, where you’re sabotaging yourself – and learn to make a better choice, set healthy boundaries and for crying out loud, do that big, bold beautiful career move, fire the draining client, raise your rates, hire help, sell your things and move cross-country to the mountains – or whatever it is your beautiful heart desires.
By tuning in you realize you already have the answers to every.single.one of your problems.
You simply need to tune in and listen.