I’ve always had a reputation for being a bit of a cliff leaper and risk taker, so saying Yes to the No voice is not something new. I’ve practised it on and off all my life, but sometimes I forget, and you can bet that my boring, depressing, lacklustre days are due to saying Yes to its close relative, the Should voice. Which alerts me to the point that for pure meaning’s sake my slogan should read: ‘say No to the No voice’. For if I say Yes to the No voice aren’t I giving the No voice its lead? I suppose you could see it that way, it’s just that it doesn’t sound as good. I need the YES in the slogan to give it its power — to banish, diminish the ‘no’ and send it back to its dark cave of doubt.
I said Yes to the No voice recently when I was umming and aahing about attending the Irrawaddy Literary Festival in Mandalay at the end of March. Even though I would be in the neighbourhood (Cambodia) and I didn’t have anything in particular to rush back for, my No voice was telling me: you don’t have an invitation, you can’t really afford the extra fares or the time, you really shouldn’t… blah blah, blah.
Luckily my friend, poet Nyein Way happened to ask me on FB— Jan are you coming to the Irrawaddy Festival this year? When I saw his words, I knew I couldn’t sustain the No voice, couldn’t give it its head, so instead I gave a ‘maybe’ with an emphasis on the ‘it’s possible’ and logged on to Air Asia to check out the airfares. They were suitably cheap and the new online visa arrangements were appealing. My fave hotel in Yangon had vacancies and I found a great Airbnb room in Mandalay for $20 a night. Internal airfares were too high but the overnight bus was affordable and would save me 2 nights accom. I contacted the Irrawaddy Fest committee to offer my services and they said YES they would include me in the program. I got back to Nyein Way and said, (Take that No voice!) YES, I’m coming!
Saying YES when the NO voice wants you to say NO, is one of the best feelings in the world. You instantly feel free, happy, alive, like you have stepped into the creative flow. And you don’t have to save it up for the BIG things you really want and won’t let yourself have, you can practice it in small ways too.
We can practise it in our writing every day. We can give ourselves (YES) time to write when the NO voice tells us we are too busy. We can go with first (YES) thoughts instead of censoring with the critic voice. We can give ourselves permission to write the stuff that our NO voice would never dare write in a million years. (There in lies your best seller!)
Say YES to the no voice today. Put it back in it’s sad old place. Open your self to the possibility of the new! Who knows what will happen — that’s what makes it so exciting!
A great role model for standing up for the YES voice against all odds, is Aung San Suu Kyi, patron of the Irrawaddy Literary Festival. How could I say no to seeing her again in Mandalay!
