{"id":786,"date":"2013-03-17T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2013-03-17T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/?p=786"},"modified":"2013-03-16T15:50:10","modified_gmt":"2013-03-16T19:50:10","slug":"saying-yes-to-yourself-and-no-to-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/?p=786","title":{"rendered":"Saying “Yes” to Yourself and “No” to Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today I was inspired to write about my topic of the week by a young man and his journey towards regaining his health.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a young man he is met with the opportunities to engage himself in lots of activities.\u00a0\u00a0While he enjoys this,\u00a0he is at the same time\u00a0challenged with symptoms of his illness.<\/p>\n

Being young rewards us with lots of energy and socializing is often center stage in our lives.\u00a0 We are out and about, called on by friends to join in on the fun.\u00a0 All of this is wonderful socializing boost our confidence and creates connections with others.\u00a0 So how do we balance wanting to\u00a0be apart of the action and not miss out on any of it\u00a0while recognizing the onset of symptoms due to our illness?<\/p>\n

One important vital aspect to consider is how often we engage in activities even when our bodies are just not\u00a0up to it.<\/p>\n

When I spoke with the young man about our common challenges, I recognized one important shared aspects of my personality that resonated with his; the inability to say “No”.\u00a0\u00a0We are both the\u00a0type of people that\u00a0are in a way “too nice”.\u00a0\u00a0People who always makes themselves\u00a0available to others, whether its as a listener or to support\u00a0the relationship through a shared\u00a0activity.\u00a0 The kind of friend that\u00a0doesn’t stop\u00a0to consider their own needs before someone\u00a0elses.<\/p>\n

Prioritizing ourselves and listening to what our bodies\u00a0are telling us about\u00a0what we\u00a0need is important to the healing process.\u00a0\u00a0This is\u00a0not easy.\u00a0 It takes being mindful which is challenging at any age, but particularly when we are young.\u00a0\u00a0 It means stopping to assess a situation that we are planning to be a part of and asking ourselves if this is something that won’t place undue stress on our body or mind.<\/p>\n

There are times when we extend ourselves to those we love and that is a part of being in a relationship.\u00a0 However, when the situation doesn’t call for such attention, and we are free to choose, we stand to gain a lot more enjoyment from the activity if we ask ourselves first for guidance.\u00a0 Saying “Yes” to ourselves and respecting our body and mind are important skills to practice.\u00a0 Keeping ourselves healthy by listening\u00a0for our needs and\u00a0creating\u00a0boundaries with our friends and family about\u00a0our time and energy will go a long way towards establishing a healthy practice for life.<\/p>\n

So next time you are invited to something, consider yourself in the process- you’ll be making a choice you can feel good about and your body too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I was inspired to write about my topic of the week by a young man and his journey towards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":796,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions\/796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}