my son, saying a resounding "YES!"
About two years ago, our then near three-year-old had this hilarious habit of asking
questions and then immediately asking, “Yes? Or nope?” And we could really get him going with it. If he forgot to ask yes-or-nope, we would ask “yes?” and he would say yes-or-nope over and over and over and over and over and, yeah, you get it. It sent us, as well as innocent bystanders, into fits of giggles nearly every time.
So imagine that little pull of my heart strings when I opened an email from Anusara teacher Hillary Rubin that discussed a more timely idea of yes-or-nope. Hers was a reminder that when we come across a “no,” a “yes” is happening at the same time. There is a shift that we all too often don’t see, because we’re attached to the “nope.”
This hit home with me this past week as I was on a girls-only day on the slopes. Wouldn’t you know it, about the second or third run in I fell hard after hitting some ice and smacked my rear end in the same spot that I had badly bruised about six months before. A spot that I thought had healed was still taking it’s sweet time to get back to 100% and I was so afraid that I had really done some damage with that fall. And to make matters worse, I did it AGAIN on the next run.
The next day, with my tailbone between my legs (well, actually, it had jammed over to the left a bit and knocked my sacrum off kilter), I went to my chiropractor’s office and begged for mercy. In tears. Tears. Not tears of pain, because it truly only hurt on impact, but tears of anticipation of the impending answer to my question: “Should I still snowboard this season?” Her recommendation was, simply, nope. “Do you ski?” was her next question.
Nope.
BUT. I have new skis! They were my Valentine’s Day gift from my husband last year (yes, two days before our second baby was born, but that’s another story). And my “yes” door opened. I’m going to take a lesson. My thighs will be roasted and I will curse the day I got those skis, but I’m going to do it.
Finding the “yes” can be empowering, don’t you think? Can you be more open to the “yes” in your life?
Yes? Or nope?
You might also enjoy reading:
YES!