AARP When the Body Says No

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“Assertion: it is the declaration to ourselves and to the world that we are and that we are who we are. Many times throughout this book we have witnessed people expressing the belief that if they do not act, they experience only emptiness, a frightening void. In our fear we falsely equate reality with tumult, being with activity, meaning with achievement. We think autonomy and freedom mean the liberty to do, to act or react as we wish. Assertion in the sense of self-declaration is deeper than the limited autonomy of action. It is the statement of our being, a positive valuation of ourselves independent of our history, personality, abilities or the world's perceptions of us. Assertion challenges the core belief that we must somehow justify our existence. It demands neither acting nor reacting. It is being, irrespective of action. Thus, assertion may be the very opposite of action, not only in the narrow sense of refusing to do something we do not wish to do but letting go of the very need to act.”