Year of Yes – February Recap

If January moved slowly like a marathon, February seems to have gone by like a hundred-yard dash. I feel like I wrote January’s recap a couple of days ago and now here I am sharing February’s recap.

If you’re new here, my word for 2020 is YES. You can read more about it here. In the interest of keeping myself accountable to this Year of YES, at the end of each month, I’m sharing how I did with saying yes. Here are the big yeses from February.

My February Yeses

IN JOY

I signed up to participate in an online program called In Joy. Kelley Palmer, aka Peace Filled Mama runs the program.

IN JOY is an invitation to explore what it can mean to return to joy, to curate it on a daily basis, to experience it from a connected and aware perspective. This isn’t answer, it is the beginning of a journey, a lifting of veils and the opportunity to choose joy… Now.

I signed up because my year of YES is largely a journey into experiencing more joy in my life. This seemed to align perfectly with that intention. As of this writing, we are only two weeks in and so far, it has been a good yes for me 😊.

The summit interview

In January’s post, I shared about an online summit I was asked to be a part of called Secrets of Dynamic Midlife Women. I did the actual interview in February and I had sooo much fun

I’m not a night owl. I wake up early and I go to bed early. Despite the interview being done in the late evening, I was energized throughout the entire process. It was truly a joyful experience for me.

I’m leaning into that joy and have set a goal to be on at least 3 podcasts this year. (Shhh, don’t tell anyone but I may already have one lined up for April.)

More joy in 2020? Yes, please 😊

Time with friends

There are people in my life who nourish my soul. Friends who see me and hold space for me when I can’t hold it for myself. When I look back on my February calendar, I see lots of time spent with these friends throughout the month.

My Vision Board invites me to build friendships that feel like family. This is an intention that I plan to lean heavily into throughout the year. February was a good start. More of this to come in 2020.

Lessons learned

Busyness = less joy

As I continue to practice saying yes, I am learning a few important lessons. The first lesson is keeping my schedule packed leaves little space for new yeses to come in.

My schedule was too full in February. There were weeks that I had something every evening and every weekend. I did manage to squeeze in a Do-Nothing-Day but even then, I couldn’t do all day like normal.

The busyness made it hard to welcome new experiences. I realize I use busyness as a tactic to shield myself from having to say yes more. As I move into March, I’ll have to make sure to keep more breathing room in my schedule.

Taking up space

One big learning I had this month was recognizing how much I pull back from taking up space. I thought this was a lesson I had moved past a long time ago. But it appears that my habit of saying no is really a fear of being seen and taking up space.

The irony of this is I teach others to claim ALL the space. I didn’t realize how much I have been holding back myself. Thankfully, my therapist and I are working on it. I’ve received a few simple strategies from her. I look forward to seeing what unfolds as I implement them.

Okay, that’s all for February. This year of YES is already proving to be surprising and we’re only two months in. March is here and I can’t wait to see what new experiences are waiting for me. Thanks for tagging along with me on this crazy year of YES.

From my heart to yours,