Every one of us lives with a ceiling, a belief ceiling. Some ceilings are lower than others. Beyond that ceiling is all that is not yet known to us -- all the possibilities of possibilities. Raising our bar takes conscious awareness and embracing new experiences. Here is an experience that will inch your bar delightfully and positively higher. The exercise isn't hard to understand, hard to learn, nor hard to complete. Yet, you do need to approach the exercise with a child-like openness, maybe even a few giggles, and allow the harvest of your labor be its own journey.

Everywhere and in everything that we do we hear no, no, no and more noes. No on going over a certain speed limit. No to what we eat. The noes keep piling up including how we pay taxes -- now that’s another story that could get each of us going. The noes don't seem to ever stop. With so many noes appearing in our life, it is easy to get stuck in the muck of noes.

To raise the bar so that more miracles can enter, we need to hear yes. We need to add more yes into our life to counterbalance the noes to get out of the muck. After sending the question, "How do I add more yes into my life?" into the universe for an answer. The answer fell from my bookshelf as I was pulling out another book. The miniature book was age stuck to its side. "The YES Book," by Christine Christakos and Susan Saucedo. If my memory serves me correctly, I met Christine or Susan ten years ago at an event when the book was first published. The book is a list of yes affirmations that these ladies use.

And it gave me a delicious idea. So I tried out my idea first on myself and then with clients. Now I would like to share the idea, how it grew, and the tree trimmings. As I mentioned earlier, don't be fooled with its simplicity. You will find it very powerful as the rest of us have.

Remember, I said it was simple but you still need to complete the exercise to receive the benefits.

Start and end your day with YES affirmations. Begin your journaling exercise with them, or record on Post- It notes. Begin each exercise by writing the word, YES, in caps at the top of each page. Be creative with the YES, make swirls and twirls with colors and design. Write it once or write it many. I enjoy just writing a page of YES is all sort of creative styles. Whatever tweaks my Twinkie at that moment.

All the affirmations begin with yes. The yes can be at the beginning of the sentence or many yeses written all over the page. It doesn't matter.

Yes, I can write well. Yes, I matter in this world. Yes, I love animals. Yes, I am a writer. Yes, I can be rich. Yes, I am rich in many ways already. Yes, I can be a millionaire. Yes, I love my children. Yes, I love the changing of leaves.

Or create a list of yeses without place yes as the first word. Remember, there’s no exact right and wrong way, just the YES way.

Yes…

This too shall pass. The sun is out. I am in the flow. I have lost one pound. I did write today. I do walk my talk. Life is infinite.

Use whatever is occurring in your life at the time. Whatever your focus could be. If you are blank start with the weather. If you are thinking even broader, write that down as well. Create a freeing experience in order to raise your bar and rebalance the noes that weight down our shoulders.

Well...I kept my promise. This exercise is simple to understand, simple to learn, and simple to complete. Okay, the last one takes a little more effort than simple because you are learning to shift your thinking from the societies murky depths of noes. Challenge your inner voice to this exercise all day long. When we hear no turn around and restate the phrase in yes. You can even mumble yeses as you drive.

Every one of my clients and myself has experienced new ceilings, new miracles, and many new experiences just by re-balancing our lives with YES. The exercise batted one thousand for all of us and it will for you too. This is just one of those experiences that you need to try it in order to believe it.

(c) Copyright 2005, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.