I don't know - I don't "no"
Who among you has ever found yourself awkwardly speechless when someone asks about your next life plans/goals/dreams? We are conditioned to carry around a concisely rehearsed elevator pitch for just such an occasion.
That’s all well and good; well, to a point.
But sometimes the pressure to perform creeps into our own psyches, even, and the expectation to provide an immediate answer becomes overwhelmingly oppressive. And you can’t just say, “mind your own business” in this case because, well, it is your own business after all.
“What happens when we swap out “I don’t know what I’m doing” for “I don’t ‘no’ what I’m doing” ?”
So what about when we don’t know? Let’s be honest, it happens… for some, a lot… certainly enough to stir up plenty of discomfort, if not deep, paralyzing fear. And who, like me, has been in that place where you feel your hopes and dreams sinking—choked, even—because you have no idea how they will manifest? Or in the worst case, humiliating.
But-and what happens when we swap “I don’t know what I’m doing” with “I don’t ‘no’ what I’m doing.”?
When admitting we don’t know, we often put a period at the end of that sentence. An admission becomes an affirmation. And that sentence is then carried out in our lives, feeling like an eternity of punishment. How quickly we wind ourselves up. Focusing on “don’t know” keeps us in resistance and fear.
When we don’t “no” what we’re doing, we release the “don’t know” affirmation, and accept an invitation to “yes, and…”—the realm of possibility.
We move, we transform, we flow again.
A caveat—of course we need to use “no” when appropriate. No is a powerful, necessary tool to ensure our boundaries are honored, and our resources reserved and protected. Use it, by all means, in a way that supports, rather than negates, you.
When we come into a reverent stillness, the first rush past this threshold is an exhilarating, terrifying thrill of the unknown.
We’re all making this up, doing our best, moment-by-moment as we go along.
— yours truly,
