REVIVE YOURSELF SHOP
Why Saying No Maybe The Best Decision You Ever Make
Isn’t time you made yourself the priority?
After all the act of treating yourself second best is ultimately why you’re here. And restoring your health depends on your making yourself the number one person in your life again.
However for many women with Digestive Distress, the issue of saying “no” to others is a constant internal-external battle. Many of us have mistakenly come to believe that declining or failing to commit to a request is societal taboo – one that it’s impolite, harsh, selfish, or worse, one that will banish you from the friendship group and make you a social leper. I’d like to clear the air of this nonsense once and for all: ladies, the truth is that habitually saying “no” when you want to say “no” is among the most freeing and unselfish things that you can do for yourselves.
You have to remember this is your journey no one else’s. And the choices you make affect you, and you alone.
Sometimes We Learn More From the Negative Than The Positive
One of the most valuable lessons that I can leave you with is the importance of saying “no” to others and to other things so that you can say “yes” to you. We need to create space in our lives that is dedicated to self-care, enjoyment and pleasure, and let’s be honest – if we were to look at a pyramid that depicted how we allocate our time, the “things I do for me” section could probably be located with a microscope in a tiny section of the top of the pyramid. Our lives are filled with so many obligations and mandatory commitments that it’s hard to squeeze in “me time” to begin with.
Why, then, do we so often feel it’s our duty to take on more than we have to if we don’t want to?
A multitude of evidence historically and quantifiably shows that people who make themselves a priority generally rank themselves as happier than those who don’t. If that’s not motivation to get comfortable with saying the big, bad, two-letter word that starts with N and ends in O, then I’m not sure what is!
If it helps, try to think of your happiness on a spectrum, where the more you commit to things you’d prefer not to, the further you move from your vision of overall happiness.
I learnt a long time ago to start saying no to things I didn’t want to do, and to put a plan into place so that I could eventually move away from things I no longer found served me or my bigger purpose, and it has been the most liberating decision of my life.
I urge you to start to do the same.
Sometimes it’s OK to say “Yes”
Think of the irrational amount of time we spend trying to justify reasons for saying “no” out of illogical guilt, when in reality, we’re going about it all wrong. This scenario begs a change in mindset. Instead of validating the our reasons for passing things up, we should instead be justifying reasons for saying “yes.”
If you’re unsure where to start, here’s a tip. Say yes to the things that you feel compelled to do. And definitely say YES to the things that make you happy, that give you enjoyment, that benefit you, especially if they contribute positively to your health or add meaning to your life.
Life is too full of things that we can’t choose to say “yes” or “no” to – so we need to make all of our other time count. Start spending more time saying “no” to things you don’t wish to do and therefore less time regretting decisions.
Setting boundaries is not only empowering, it’s necessary to your health, well being and recovery. Your progress depends of you having enough energy and being able to channel your energy into what truly matters to you.
It takes approximately 55% – 75% of your daily calories just to run food from your mouth to your anus, so what little calories and energy you do have left, you need to use wisely. Especially when you are healing your body.
