The practice of being agreeable

There’s a practice I’ve heard of, where you are simply agreeable for a day.

Okay, okay — maybe that’s better described as a challenge. (I’ll bet someone in your life popped into your head there. Maybe it’s your own self. I see you.)

Either way, the idea is that we purposefully, mindfully, and consciously choose to respond with being agreeable. To everyone. To everything.

No, this does not automatically turn us into a Yes-Person for the day. In being agreeable, we don’t have to agree with — that is not actually the goal outcome. In being agreeable, we are creating space and possibility in which to become open, receptive, expansive, connecting. We can bring our Yes if it is authentic. Otherwise we can bring our neutrality. We just stop bringing our rulings; we don’t reign on the parade.

Instead of responding with Yes to everyone and everything (Um, that can be dangerous. And, you’re nobody’s puppet. Be in charge of yourself, always!), try something like these:

• Oh, that’s interesting!
• I hadn’t thought of it that way.
• You make a fine point.
• Let me think about that.
• That sounds like you know what you want!
• Good for you!
• I don’t see why not!

And before you go all “Wait a minute, this is totally for the benefit of the other person and I’m no floor mat,” let me mention that this practice is actually for the prosperity and blessing of you, first and foremost. Here are just a few of the things I have experienced when I attend to doing this practice for a day:

• Calmer state of mind
• Relaxed from body tension
• Smiling more
• A sense of peace
• Exempt from being judgy and from feeling judged
• Positive connection with others
• Sh*t doesn’t bother me — in fact, it’s just gone

When I practice being agreeable for a day, I find there is nothing to fight. And I discover that any clash of consciousness was usually just a melee of my own mind. We can always agree to disagree…

Try this practice for yourself. Be agreeable — for a day, for a half day, for an hour, or begin with your response to reading this. What benefits did you experience?