I love downhill skiing. It is such a great metaphor for life. Skis only work efficiently when we are leaning forward, pushing into our ski boots and pushing ourselves just slightly past our comfort zone. In life, saying a resounding YES and leaning into the difficulties means fully committing. The instant we commit, to anything, our liver uptakes all the energy we will ever need to accomplish that goal or dream.
Skis aren’t designed for holding back. Neither is our liver. Like skiing, life only works well when we lean into the difficulties. When life or a project is hard— being grateful for the difficulties (our spirit and soul created them), pushing just past our comfort zone and then feeling all the fears that come up is how we develop willpower. It’s also how we develop our unique genius qualities.
We all suffer from socialization. There are hundreds of thousands of subtle ways that society has conditioned us to hold back our greatness, to not stand out, to be safe, to give our power away. Researchers studying family dynamics observe that the typical parent says no to their children in about three hundred different ways each day, while only saying yes about three times.
School and church reinforce this pattern. Our friends are similarly socialized, so they further reinforce this pattern. By the time we are seven years old, we have completely internalized the negative reinforcement. “No,” which translates as "I can't do that," automatically comes up any time our mind thinks in creative directions.
We peel away layers of societal conditioning by teaching ourselves to be grateful for all the difficulties that come up. Saying YES! to life’s difficulties is like leaning into our ski boots. It’s the only way to live the hero’s journey and accomplish our heart’s desires.
Excerpted from Body Intelligence, A New Paradigm by John L. Mayfield, D.C.
