Yes to Personal Growth

Last week I was reading Therese Borchard’s Beyond Blue Blog, where she writes that the first step in changing is “getting to yes, getting help.”

In her case, she’s talking about help for her depression. But all of us, at some point in our lives, need to say “yes, I need help” for something. Whether we have a physical or psychological problem, a relationship that needs re-tooling or healing, or money troubles, we need to surrender and say yes to changing that situation.

I know that, with my own goal of dropping 40 plus pounds and getting to a healthy weight (I am 4 pounds away from my goal, btw), I struggled. At those times, exercising and going to yoga class with my diet buddy was helpful but going back to my centering prayer practice helped me reconnect with a deeper part of me that wanted health and wholeness.

Therese points out that asking for help can propel you on a journey of transformation. And she ends her blog with a wonderful quote from Dag Hammarskjold, which bears repeating here:

I don't know Who—or what—put the question. I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone—or Something—and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.

Like Hammarskjold, I don’t know why I was able to get to yes last January. I’m not even sure it matters. What matters is the recognition that my struggle—our struggles—can have spiritual  ramifications, and that as long as we are alive, we need to continue to say “yes.” Yes to health, yes to relationships, yes to life—and yes to God.