The Distance Between No and Yes
July 11th, 2008 . by tracyClarification…I am not talking here about the ability and necessity of saying “No” to things that tip our lives out of balance or cause our plates to overflow.
I am talking instead about the voice deep down in our belly, the one that says No or Yes to life and to its deeper, higher calls. The one that is a reflection of how open we are to the process of living and its changing seasons, how trusting we are of Life, God and ourselves, and how much we truly believe in an evolutionary flow that is innately good, working for the purpose of our growth and ever greater becoming.
Stop for a moment. Focus on the point just beneath where your ribs meet in front, your solar plexus. With each breath let your awareness move deeper…into your core. Rest here for a moment. Then hear Life ask…are you ready?
What answer comes? Yes…No?
Or maybe another question - for what?
…to expand your vision, to live fully with arms open wide, welcoming all that arises and risking what you must in order to become who you are…
Be clear, there is no judgment in the question. No judgment of the answer. The question has no expiration date, but remains eternally - patiently - awaiting your arrival. If you say No today and return tomorrow, Life…God…you own Highest Self… will ask you again…are you ready? Are you ready?
No is actually a very good answer. When you can enter into the inner temple and say, No, I am not yet ready to live my greatest story, you are inviting honest awareness and inquiry stripped of masks, defenses and falsities.
When you say No, you are allowing the deeper questions to rise: What keeps you from readiness, or willingness? What must be seen, known, let go of and finally…finally surrendered before your Inner Poetry can be revealed within you and expressed to the world?
Excavating the answers to these questions is where the real work begins.
No(s) are often found under the rubble of excuses - what we tell ourselves and what we truly believe holds us back from being and doing what we most desire. They are perpetuated by the coziness of our comfort zones, our resistances to change or fears of the unknown. They can be an inherited perspective, the stamp of limited expectations emblazoned upon us by our histories.
You will recognize your own No(s) in the big and little choices of your life: a conversation left un-had, an apology not given, a relationship allowed to wither or one suffered through, staying in a job long after knowing you should go, or refusing a path that deep down you know is right for you. No often echoes most loudly, not in answers given to the world, but in those held deep inside - in love held back, forgiveness denied, risks untaken, or perpetual self-recriminations…in the refusal to slow down and let truth reveal itself…to let God in.
Can you, right now, think of a time when you said No to Life calling you into your greatest nature or onto a different, perhaps more authentic path? (If you can’t, you’re way ahead of most of us, and I salute you!).
If you are able to recall such a time, let yourself wonder…what would saying Yes have looked like? And what would it have cost you? What would it have asked you to do or give that you weren’t, at the time, ready for?
And now, looking back…what did saying No cost you?
But, too, what did you come to know, to learn through saying No? What of yourself was made stronger? Honor this.
All through our lives, over and over again, we are given the opportunity to choose, to define, to create, who we are…and to choose again, to redefine and recreate who we are. Over and over we are called into knowing and being the “highest version of our highest self*”. Only through our No(s) do we even learn what it means to say Yes to Life.
Through living the experience of who you think you are, you are drawn, with fervent love and fierce compassion, by the omega point of who you most truly are…
Your life, in its wisdom, is the unique path of your soul’s undertaking, meant to teach you what it must in order for you to awaken.
So when you reach the deep places where God’s signature is found you will recognize yourself, know already the words written there, and do without question what is asked, surrender without fear what you must, in order to become…poetry in motion. (from Inner Poetry, the presentation)
Every inner or outer call…for change, for fearlessness, for a leap of faith…is your Soul’s way of drawing you to your core, into your greatest story. Every No given in response to a call simply creates a new trajectory in the journey, leading to another call, another opportunity…back to the question: Are you ready?
So, when you hear the next bell tolling for you, when that next fork in the road appears and you are given a point of choice…go within and answer in honesty. Saying No with awareness is a huge step toward saying Yes.
And saying Yes is only another beginning…
Namaste.
(* term borrowed from Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations With God)