Honour your "no" to honour your "yes"

I'm busy. I have no time for eating healthy. I have no time to do sports. I have to work overtime again... I have to cancel my evening out with friends. I am too tired to go for a walk...

We live in a world where saying yes is an expectation, almost a norm. If you say no to someone's request you are perceived selfish, rude, lazy. At the same time we neglect to say yes to our own needs and sooner or later we find ourselves on a spiral to feeling frustrated and unhappy with our life, snapping at our loved ones, getting sick or falling into burnout, depression and other health problems...

In order to say yes to ourselves, we have to say no to someone else. There is no other way to fit in something in a busy schedule other than deciding not to do something - something that does not serve us, depletes us from energy and does not contribute to our priorities.

One of my client had an issue with saying no, thinking that refusing or postponing a customer request will ruin the working relationship. Easy to guess: my client constantly felt under huge pressure and stress. When I asked my client how they felt if someone else said no to them, most of the time it wasn't impacting my client at all...

If we do not take a "no" so personally, what makes us think we cannot sometimes say it too?

Today I invite you to play with me: practice saying no.

You can go for something easy: like saying no if someone is trying to sell you something at the corner of a street.

You can take it one step further and say no to a colleague, boss, partner, kid, friend, parent - to an ad hoc request that does not contribute to your current priorities and at the same time will take your focus and energy away.

Small or big, thank yourself for saying that "no" and fill that gap with a "yes to yourself".

Could that "yes" be the time to cook something healthy and delicious? Or spend time with loved ones? Or read, meditate, paint, go for a walk?

Honouring your no and your yes is one of key elements of self-love and habits that will help you live a less stressful life.

I am very curious what "no" you come up for the next 3 days and what "yes" you practised instead...