The Masculine Is A Yes To Everything

A simple reminder with profound ramifications

Last week at our men's retreat we had John Wineland come in and teach a session for participants.

Even though I've been around John for thousands of hours and am deeply familiar with his teachings, he shared a simple concept that I completely forgot about:

The Masculine way is to be a "Yes" to everything.

Yes to your woman's complaint.

Yes to being stuck in traffic.

Yes to financial ruin.

Yes to everything - the hardships, the joys, the heartbreak, the unexpected opportunities.

The things that feel shitty in our lives are rarely about the actual thing, and more about our resistance to being with it.

I have been stuck in an immigration hell-hole for nearly 3 years.

I haven't been able to leave the US and have missed countless birthdays, funerals, and family gatherings.

I have no status and doing anything that regular citizens do here has been like pulling teeth.

I even had to go through the entire process of getting a driver's license all over again - even though I've been driving for nearly 20 years.

For nearly two years I resisted this reality.

I bitched, moaned, and complained about how shitty it was for me.

Of course, all this whining only made it feel worse.

I perpetuated my victimhood even though immigrating here was something I consciously chose and knew the implications.

Then, one day I just threw up my hands and surrendered.

I knew I had done everything I could do and whatever transpired next was at the will of the US government

I stopped worrying about timelines and feeling stuck and just said "YES!"

That one shift in my mindset changed everything.

I relaxed.

I finally had the altitude to look at what was going right...

How the constrictions forced me to focus on what was right in front of me.

All the amazing places I could travel in the US.

The amazing business I was building with my friends.

Finding new ways to connect with my family and friends without seeing them.

Getting excited about how good it would feel to get my freedom back.

When we become a Yes to life, we become aware of all the open doors we've been ignoring while banging on the closed ones.

Yes is the masculine way.

Yes frees our mind from resentment, anger, and control.

Allowing us to surrender and soften into what is possible.

We can't leave somewhere we've never been, and accepting where we are requires our full-hearted, embodied Yes.

While most men live in fierce resistance to how their woman is being, how much money they have in their bank account, or whether their team is winning...

Embodied men are a Yes to it all.

They know that all roads lead to a further descent into the mystery of life.

And they're here to experience everything with a strong spine and deep, wide heart.