How do you know when to say 'no'?

Maybe you didn’t notice, but you didn’t hear from me last week. That’s because I

- did a TV taping in Sacramento on Monday (coming to YouTube soon!)
- did energy healing in San Jose on Thursday for a group of healers (at least one spontaneous physical healing)
- taught my One Day Breakthrough in San Francisco on Saturday (with the expected amazing results)

plus, of course, my usual private clients, squeezed in around all of this.

Each of those events wipes me out for a day or two -- heck, even the travel can wipe me out -- so I found it impossible to write. In fact, I spent Friday in bed, feeling like something the cat didn’t drag in (Beast brings me lovely animal trophies, in perfect condition — but the ones he mauls, he leaves in the garden to decompose), wondering how in the world I was going to mange Saturday.

I walked around for a couple of days, saying to myself and to friends, “Remind me never to do THAT again!”

Driving over to Oakland yesterday to teach intuition development (4 appearances in 10 days, in 4 locations), I began to think about ‘just saying no’.

Here’s the thing — mostly when people talk about learning to say no, they’re talking about learning to say no to other people wanting you to do things you don’t actually want to do. It’s all about valuing yourself and standing up for yourself.

But I’m talking about something different. How do you learn to say no to things you do want to do? I jumped at the opportunity for another TV interview, was thrilled when I was asked to do energy channeling, happily accepted the teaching date in SF, and the one in Oakland. My regret is only that those things were so close together.

So here are the questions I’ve come up with, to be answered from your deepest knowing:

1) Is it in my long term highest good to do this?
2) Is is in my short term highest good to do this?

If the answer to (1) is no, great, say no.

If the answer (1) is yes, then you have to ask the second question. This is the question I discovered yesterday!

What if it is in my long term highest good to do something, and not in my short term highest good to do it? This is where I was last week. It most definitely was in my long term highest good to do all those things, but it was not in my short term highest good to do them all at the same time.

Here is where creativity and the art of negotiation come into play. What can you rearrange in your schedule, with the consent of others, so that what is in your short term highest good lines up with your long term highest good? I could have had different dates for at least two of the events, and should have postponed them. More is not always better.

Good luck in your negotiations! :)