Saying "Yes" to Experience

I’ve been working a lot with clients about saying “yes” to experience. What does this mean? It means having our experience and not resisting it. It means allowing the experience and even accepting it and welcoming it. By treating our current situation as having elements from which we create our next step, we can then move on in our lives. It doesn’t mean we have to like it. It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t prefer some other experience. It does, however, mean that we need to let life unfold. If we resist our experience (or try to grasp it), then we tend to get stuck in our resistance, our worry, and our obsessions. Author and Zen teacher Susan Murphy, in her book “Upside Down Zen”, talks about treating situations as a comedy improv act. When we say “yes” to what life throws us—and turn it back around with another “yes”—we are in a position both to receive and create something quite magical. When we say “no” to our experience, we shut down that which we are receiving and also shut down to possibility. This is the essence of mindfulness practice. How do you say “yes” or “no” to your experience and how does that play out for you? What do you find when you say “yes”? -Catherine Follett