Saying Yes When You Mean To Say No - September 16

Have you ever caught yourself saying “yes” when deep down you wanted to say “no”? In today’s 5 Minutes In Nature, Liz recalls a visit to a deli where she walked away with things she didn’t even want—simply because old patterns of insecurity and self-doubt took over. She now sees the whole experience as a lighthearted nudge from the Universe, reminding her of the importance of staying grounded before responding.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott and I'm just out on a little stroll just breathing in the afternoon air.

It's going to rain tomorrow I think so this is probably the last settled day for a while and I just thought I would get out and stand beneath this lovely oak tree looking at the blue sky around me sheltering a little bit from the breeze that I can feel and feeling very grateful that I am out in the dry.

And today I went out to a place called Dartmouth.

Dartmouth is at the mouth of the River Dart and I really love it there.

It's this area of the South Hams where I live is one of my favorite places to visit and down in Dartmouth the tide was out the boats were a lot of them were on the estuary mud and as we were there the tide started to come in and they started to re-float on the water.

I was there with my husband and my husband and I we have a plant-based diet in other words we're vegan and we went to Dartmouth and we thought well what we'll do is we'll go and get a cup of tea and we'll get a nice cake and we'll just have a bit of a treat.

But when we went down there and my husband was a little bit injured so we hobbled he hobbled to a couple of shops with me and we said have you got any vegan cakes and the answer was no and so I said look I'll leave you here sit on a bench I'm gonna go I'll get us a little bite to eat for lunch and I'll bring it back I'll get a takeaway.

And I went to this really posh deli and I walked in there and I said have you got anything vegan and the man who was in charge of the deli I think it was his delicatessen he just seemed quite officious and and what transpired was a conversation where he basically told me he did have some vegan options and he told me what they were.

I kind of gulped at the price but I was I felt I felt a bit intimidated so I found myself saying yes I would buy this vegan lunch and this vegan flapjack and I ended up spending probably about 30 pounds on a takeaway that I didn't really want.

Now I'm not telling you this about me buying food that I didn't particularly want I'm telling you this because it was a great reminder for me of what can sometimes happen.

You see what I can sometimes do is I can find myself falling into old habitual thought patterns habitual thought patterns of I'm not good enough this person knows what's good for me I will let them make the choice on my behalf I don't want this to let this person down.

Those are the very sort of familiar thought patterns for me and I had a lapse when I went into this delicatessen and so what happened is I end up buying a load of food that was very expensive that I didn't really want and this is such a great example it's such a great reminder for me I love these gentle reminders in life where I'm reminded that it's okay to make mistakes it's okay to fall into those habitual thought patterns I don't need to beat myself up and I see it as a reminder and a sort of a bit of a bit of humor from the universe to remind me that it's okay it's okay to have these human moments and the lesson for me here is to remind me of walking in a space where I feel grounded to know that when I don't feel grounded I and I can say yes to things that don't feel right and also it's a reminder just to be kind to myself when I fail and I find myself saying yes when I really mean no it's just a gentle reminder that that isn't the life I want to lead for me it's important to remind myself of my grounding to remind myself of my authenticity and to say yes when I mean yes and to say no when I mean no so a great lesson from the universe today spending a lot more money than I wanted to on a meal but it wasn't about the delicatessen it wasn't about the food it was a reminder of my old thought patterns that sometimes hijack me

Reviews

Thanks Liz. 🙏🏼
I can relate to that.
I find myself intimidated by officious people and I lose my sense of groundedness.
I like how you say it is a reminder as once we are aware we can become more affective.
I had a situation today with a place on Airbnb which sounded too good to be true, and one part of me was reminding myself of that saying ‘ if it sounds too good to be true ‘ and another part of me was saying ‘ yeah but maybe thst is just an old saying and you can challenge yourself on it’
Then I asked myself what my inner compass was feelingsnd the feeling was to just leave it and trust what I want will come along.
I still feel though that I would like to challenge that old saying of ‘ if it sounds to good to be true ‘ but I do not want to make a financial and emotional mistake if I did book the Airbnb.
🌿☘️💚☘️🌿

I struggle to be authentic all the time! It’s like I default to pleasing others and forget to go deep and decide what I really want! Thanks for the pep talk Liz!

Ah yes, I hear you, definitely a pot-hole I fall into frequently. But I love your thinking that those “lapses” give us the opportunity to be aware and to practice.