Dare you...say "YES!"

It was 2010, several months after my father died, a few months before my 40^th birthday that I chose “YES” in my life.  I had been wanting to travel with Jana Stanfield for several years.  I met her at an event for the National Wellness Conference, but before that had been familiar with her inspiring songs and messages of positivity.  Her life sounded so exotic, compelling, intoxicating…traveling the world, going to Bali, helping orphanages.  So, after my father died I had a gift of some financial freedom which allowed me to look into traveling with Jana and volunteering.  I looked so forward to Bali as Jana had spoken about many years prior at this conference and googled Jana’s website to see the when and the where of her next trip….what I was met with was disappointment as her next voluntour adventure was to Vietnam.  VIETNAM??? I couldn’t possible go there!  In my mind I had the black and white images of newscasts of the war as a kid growing up, images of bodies, death, war and destruction with Walter Conkrite’s voice overs in the background. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDXSe1rRdqw

What made me say “YES” to this trip?  I began researching and finding the beauty to be discovered in Vietnam…the need for volunteering…the safety of traveling with a group…the adrenaline of taking a leap into the unknown and saying a big “YES” for the me I knew I might find on just such a trip.  Had I been struck down by my fears and all the reasons why it might not be a good idea for me to travel, I would never have discovered such abundance and joy in my life as I did on that trip.  For me, it was life changing on how I viewed my now and my hopes for more in my tomorrows.  I met amazing, talented, spiritually alive people.  I put myself through experiences I never thought possible for a woman living in a little town in Central Wisconsin.  I opened up, wide! I danced with children at a school in Sapa, Vietnam, one hour down a long, narrow, serpentine road through rice paddies and jaw dropping cliffs, I held a baby at an orphanage outside of Hanoi and walked silently back to the bus with my travel companions through a Buddhist garden in the dark in awe of all that I have in my life, I sang songs and played hacky sack with wonderful school children whose only common language with me was laughter and smiles.  I said “YES”.

“Each year I resolve to believe there will be possibilities.  Every year I resolve to be a little less the me I know and leave a little room for the me I could be.  Every year I make a note not to feel left behind by my friends and family who have managed to change far more than I.”  Wendy Wasserstein, playwright.

What can you say “YES” to today?  It doesn’t need to be as big as a travel to the other side of the world…but, it has to be something that is big enough to push you out of your comfort zone.  I teach women to say “no” on a daily basis in my private practice, to set boundaries, to not take on too much, to stay in balance.  What I also teach is how to say “YES”.  Yes, to the experiences, yes to the dreams, yes to the possibilities.  When we move into “yes” for the right things, we are wide open to our destiny.  Wide open to that job or career, wide open to that relationship we have been holding back in, wide open to that new friend, wide open to empowerment.  Say a big “YES” today and move beyond your fears and resistance to that which awaits you!

Christie Gause-Bemis, MSW, LCSW

“There has got to be something more...more joy, more love, more peace, more juice, more gratitude, more jazz!  I am a believer in more.  It is with gratitude of what I already have in life that I shout for MORE!  For me and for all of my sisters yearning for more.”  Christie has been a psychotherapist in private practice for the last decade.  She is a writer, an artist, a mama and a wife.  More than all those "roles" she is a woman.  For years she has conducted workshops, retreats and gatherings for women in search of wellness, often incorporating a multi-media, art, journaling, music in her presentations. She has taught stress management, parent education, and therapeutic crisis intervention around the state.  She is a graduate of UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, with a Master's in Social Welfare.  She is an adjunct faculty of Lakeland College and has been a part of her community by sitting on planning committees, volunteering, and outreach activities.  She has traveled on two voluntours with Jana Stanfield.www.janastanfield.com Christie is married with two children and three step-children. She is co-owner of Hot Pink YOUniversity.  www.hotpinkyou.com