The Wisdom in Saying No

By saying yes we open the door to fresh opportunities and even adventures that can change our life. It can feel exhilarating and right in those moments we say that small word that changes everything. In saying no however, is it possible to also experience the same? Is no just the opposite always? Isn’t there the chance that saying no to something creates the possibility to saying yes to the right thing for us? I personally feel there is a wisdom to saying no sometimes and throwing caution to the wind is not always the best choice.

There is a security in no. This smaller word than yes gives the impression of stability and things not changing which can be comforting and what we think we need at a time in our life. There are times I’ve said no because I needed to. I was tired, drained, overwhelmed and it wasn’t the right time for me to say yes. I’ve also said no when I was just scared. There is always a time to trust your gut which is another wise saying of advice and sometimes it has been the right thing for me to do.

It is however those times we say no to something only to realize we could have saved ourselves a lot of problems and troubles that I think we miss out. As many times as I have done this it’s become humorous almost. If I had only known right? Yet, we often do know the exact moment we chose to say no. We distinctly remember what we were feeling, why we did it and where we were in life. I do at least, most notably with the bigger things in life but quite a few small things too. The times I said no and spend more energy, time and money doing it the way I thought would work only to get there realize I could have gotten there faster, cheaper and with less effort makes me realize how stubborn I really am at times.

Let’s take for example the amount of money I have spent over the years on something simple like household cleaners. I never liked having my nose burn with the supposedly fresh smell or the way my hands would be dry afterwards. Yet my house was clean and smelled clean or at least the type of smell that let someone know I opened a bottle of whatever cleaner that was to need extra thick lotion afterwards to my hands. I was too stubborn to try anything else because this was what I’d always used. It was the stuff everyone buys so why should I consider anything else? It wasn’t until I was forced into a family budget situation that we needed to cut back on anything and everything that I realized there were options. In fairness I always knew there were other options I just didn’t believe they worked.

When I realized I could save a lot of money switching to natural cleaners and making a lot of them myself, it gave me power. The power I felt was an increase in our family budget at a time we really needed it as well as awareness that I no longer had a burning nose and dried out hands when I cleaned. It felt like a secret unlocked and I could say yes to something now that I probably should have said yes to a long time ago. The ability to go into a store and walk past the aisles of large bottles that costs a lot and go to simple things that also worked well was empowering and liberating in a time when I could have just as easily crumbled.

The wisdom of saying no changed for me in that experience. I now said no to things financially related when I knew I had options. I could control more of my own fate in a storm and could say no to things that I knew weren’t right for me. The yes for me were for things that gave us the edge to living well even during storms in life that threatened to do their worse. It may seem to see that type of power come from just changing what I bought for household cleaners but considering the change in budget impact it was huge. To go from spending $50 to $75 a month on cleaners, detergents and fabric softeners to spending under $20 a month is significant. Over time it became even more significant as we were able to save some extra.

Maybe a few dollars here or there isn’t a big deal to you but when your family is facing loss of income or something else that could be financially devastating I think every dollar counts. I think that gut wrenching shock of a situation and immediate concern about how to cover for it financially is the result of a trail of nos we have said that lead to this very moment we find ourselves standing. For me personally, I stood in that moment completely aware of the lies I had fallen for and just how much I had taken for granted because it was all I ever considered possible. I mistook convenience for meaning I couldn’t also save money for it and that blind eye approach cost my family thousands that would have been so meaningful to have in that moment. Never again.

I know many people turn to natural products because of the non-toxic aspect of them. This is an incredible benefit that I too have come to love but the heart of why I finally turned a no to a yes in considering a natural lifestyle was the money. Yes there are many essential oils that cost more than others but when I consider the benefits of them, the versatility and quality such as that I get through doTERRA I’m still coming out ahead on cost. Those few dollars saved here and there had created the opportunity to say yes to other natural living means that expanded not only our financial picture but our health picture as well.

In the many messages about natural products, I stand firmly in the wisdom of no. The lessons I learned through that experience now empower me to say no to other things that do not align to the financial, health or well-being of my family. In their place are products, those directly from nature that help us not only live our best life but help safeguard the preciousness of our family budget.

The wisdom of no can be powerful in helping guide us to the right yes. It however takes courage to see no as a means to proactively find the right solutions. Letting go of saying no from a place of fear or desperation and instead letting it be our source of truth pointing north is where we find the opportunities for the right yes to be able to be bravely said. For me this meant letting go of my stubbornness from what I would not have otherwise considered until I was forced. The outcome was a family budget spared and ability to adapt to changes that helped us well-beyond just cleaning our house.

To learn more about what I use and how I use them in my home visit dragonspitapothecary.com