I’m in the midst of a process of editing and rerecording a series of audiotaped guided meditations that I created many years ago, updating them to CDs.  In the process of revisiting and editing the scripts I wrote back when, I’ve been deliciously immersed in the energy of possibility for many weeks now.  I find myself eager to re-release these earlier guided meditations in order to have time to offer some new ones. 

One of the themes of more recent years that builds on my early work with the optimal future self is the power of saying “yes” to life in general and, more specifically, generating a willingness to be the best we can be, without reservation. This is a practice I do every day, and I find it supports a sense of engagement with life in an active and enlivened way.

And so, for this week’s experiment, I invite you to play with the possibility of beginning each day with a commitment to be the best you can be, without reservation, as you move through the day, even if you have no concrete idea of what “the best you can be” actually means.  For one person, this may mean being willing to respond when someone says hello, or to speak up when speaking up is necessary.  The impact of saying “yes” to all you can be may be dramatic, or may emerge as small moments in a very ordinary day.  For example, one of the small side effects of my practice is that I seem not to be able to walk by trash on the street without picking it up and putting it in a trash can.  The other day, this happened twice within about 10 minutes, as people in front of me dropped trash on the street right next to trash cans and I found myself just leaning down, scooping it up, and dropping it in the trash can without missing a beat.  The way I understand this in myself is that part of my commitment to being the best I can be is to continue to explore and experience oneness with my whole body-mind being, and this seems to be one mundane way that intention comes into practice in my daily life.

For someone else, being committed to being their whole body-mind being without reservation may mean to confront a particular fear that’s held them back.  I went through this many years ago when my enormous speaking phobia would have prevented me from teaching.  Had I not made the commitment at the time to be my whole body-mind self, without reservation, and say “yes” to my future self, I believe I would have taken much longer to overcome my fear.  It was only years later that I realized my “yes” meant that circumstances and opportunities would emerge to allow me to overcome my speaking phobia and that I my “yes” had also prepared me to respond to them.

Whatever your particular commitment to life, or whatever theme gives your life meaning, I invite you to engage this experiment with curiosity and a willingness to play with saying “yes” to the best you can be.  The extra part here, the part that really matters, in fact, is your willingness to do this without reservation.  That means no holding back, no stopping midway, no bargaining with your best potential that you’ll offer yourself only when you’re comfortable.

The good news is that the process doesn’t require a conscious effort.  Rather, just as with the future self, it’s more a matter of willingness, a matter of your being willing to say “yes” to the best life and self-expression available to you, and then to add that you will give yourself to being the best you can be without reservation.  Then, it’s a matter of noticing what emerges in your life as you continue to say “yes” each day – to see what opportunities find you, what positive, spontaneous responses you have that you might have held back before, what choices you make that may surprise you.  The key, as with all this kind of work, is that you focus on the best life, developments, outcomes, or self-expression available to you. 

As with all the experiments, please engage this one without judgment or, if you fall into any kind of judgment, allow yourself to notice it and let it move on by, as if it were a bird or a little dust devil that came your way and then moved on.