For a large portion of my recovery thus far, I spent time living in an in-patient Neuro rehab facility in Dripping Springs, Texas (About a half hour West of Austin. Overall a positive experience, The therapy sessions consisted of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Vision therapy and psych in groups or individual 1 on 1 sessions. Residents, most entirely brain injury survivors, with varying levels of recovery and a wide spectrum of effects of their injury. At one point rather early in my stay, I was asked by one of my physical therapists if I wanted to go to camp. Even under normal circumstances, pre-stroke, I might have declined the invitation, having done my fair share of camps through the years as an adult volunteer, and as a camper. For whatever reason instead of following my head and declining going to camp, and all the unknowns that presents to someone freshly disabled, I said yes. Yes I will take the chance and step outside of my comfort zone and trust the system that I won’t be put in a position to be seriously injured, even though, every mention of camp around the facility was accompanied by talk of zip lining, which is something both that I’ve thought to be trendy and something I wanted to do, so when asked about doing it, I found myself saying yes, despite my limitations. So, I was all set up to go to camp and likelly zip lining. A few weeks later, I loaded into a minivan with my trusted staffer, Hunter. I met Hunter my first day at the facility. We quickly bonded over a love of making music.
So, saying yes pays off; and often times when our gut says no. Sometimes we just need to say yes to doing something we don’t want to do. Think of a significant other requesting a chore to be done; the release of dopamine in the requester when you say, “Absolutely, I will.” builds a small block in the strength of that relationship. The trick might be taking pleasure in performing a task. Knowing there’s a benefit to both of you, When you say, “Yes,It would be my pleasure” and mean it.