“Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Matthew 5:37).
“Yea, yea, and nay, nay, stand for what are called in scientific prayer the Affirmation and the Denial, respectively. These are the Affirmation of Truth and Harmony and the Omnipresence of God in Reality; and the denial of any power in error and limitation.” —Emmet Fox
As simple as it sounds, the quality of your life is the result of your use of the words yes and no. Yes opens the gate to either input from the senses or spiritual guidance. No closes that same gate.
If you seek to be on a path that brings desired changes in your experience, it is essential that you become conscious of the things to which you are saying yes and no. When you catch yourself reacting in fear to some condition, for example, you are saying yes to the power of this appearance to affect your quality of life. As long as the appearance is present, your life will remain negatively affected. On the other hand, you can look at the appearance and say no to the fear that rises in you. You can say yes to the idea that greater possibilities are unfolding despite appearances to the contrary.
I think of this yes and no ability as a kind of light switch of the mind. You turn it on to those attitudes that encourage the further expression of your desired life and you turn it off to those attitudes that would hinder the expression of the quality life you seek. Making the conscious choice to flip this yes and no switch is the key.
You are also faced with this choice when you seek inner stillness. Thoughts begin to fill your mind and you either say yes or no to them. If you are seeking spiritual guidance, you say no to trains of thought that send you careening down paths looking in this or that place for answers. You say yes to the steady knowing that God is in charge and the right answer is unfolding through you in this moment and that every step you take is the right step.
Be alert to how you are using your very powerful switch of yes and no.