When "No" Means "Yes"

Saying “NO” to bad choices is saying “YES” to yourself. Too often we say yes to others to please them only to leave ourselves feeling angry and frustrated. I did this for the better part of my early years and it eventually took a toll on me. By the time I was 18yrs old I ended up with ulcers and later high blood pressure. I ran around to please everyone and ending up pleasing no one, especially not myself. After being hospitalized my father said there was a two letter word I needed to learn, that word was “No!” I would say yes to everyone, I thought I was superwoman only to find that I wasn’t.

How many times have you told someone you’d do something for them when you knew you already had too much on your plate? In your heart you knew there was some place else you’d rather be, but just to be nice you said “YES”. Did you think if you said “NO” they wouldn’t like you anymore? I used to be like that. I’d overextend myself to the point of exhaustion and then got so angry for not saying “NO” that I’d find myself sitting over a bowl of ice cream drowning myself in my sorrows. I know I’m not alone in this. We say “YES” thinking if we said “no” we wouldn’t be liked. The truth is that until we love ourselves enough to say “NO”, to things that don’t serve us, we aren’t truly saying “YES” to ourselves.

Saying “NO” doesn’t just apply to people, it also applies to food. In a world where everything is centered around socializing this is a tricky one. Growing up in a home where everything was centered around it, food was love and we would never say “NO” to it. Today food doesn’t have the same attachment for me. Food is nourishment and it no longer means love. Saying “NO” to the food is saying “YES” to me.

It’s time to love you. It starts with saying “NO” to what no longer serves you and “YES” to what does. When you say “NO”, you’re saying “YES” to yourself!