Learn How to Say No

Learning How to Say No Will Lead to a Life of True Emotional Freedom and Liberation

Why do we want to learn how to say no? The art of saying NO is something we are never taught. Think about it. From a young age at school, we are told what to do. We start learning at a certain time, take recess at this time and eat lunch at this time without ever stopping to ask ourselves what we truly want to do.

Shifting Out of Autopilot

For as long as we can remember, we have been on autopilot saying “yes” to a system or other people telling us how to live our lives in order to succeed. But the paradox is that no outside person can tell you how to set up and design your life in a way that allows you to flourish. When we listen to the external voices around us instead of turning within to discover our internal system, we are disempowered. These autopilot routines of saying “yes” when we mean “no”, have caused a buildup within our bodies, which leads to pain or chronic disease. For example, we automatically step with our right foot instead of our left foot. We reach for our phone when we know no one has texted or called us. We grab our favorite pair of yoga pants more consistently without even thinking about the other pairs. Our body carries an automatic routine to do things out of habit without us even having to think about whether it is something we want or not. To live a life of emotional freedom and liberation, we must begin to slow down our minds, emotions, and bodies to be able to listen to what we want instead of automatically repeating a habit. These repeated practices may seem small, but they lead you toward living a life that isn’t your own as you continue to participate in things you don’t want to do, simply because you’ve never known another way.

The Practice of Living An Uncompromised Life

In my third book, An Uncompromised Life, the sixth principle is to ‘Own Your No’ so that you can live a ‘Heck Yes Life’. When I was 14 and doctors told me I’d be on medication every day for the rest of my life, I remember thinking it was the only life narrative that was possible.

But we must remember, much like yoga, being a doctor is a practice; we are always in a state of…