Do You Hesitate to Ask for What You Need or Want?

Ever wondered how often you silently assume the answer will be "no" before even asking for what you want? Today, I share personal stories about the transformative power of simply asking. From a work shift change that allowed a memorable day with my sister to a delightful surprise involving chocolate muffins, these anecdotes reveal the importance of voicing our needs and desires. By consistently affirming our worth through asking, we break the cycle of unworthiness and open ourselves up to a world of possibilities.

Feeling dim and need to recharge your inner light? Discover how reconnecting with your inner brightness can not only brighten your day but also positively impact those around you. Through heartfelt stories and practical self-care tips—be it a solitary walk or a heartfelt hug—we explore the necessity of maintaining our inner radiance. Cherish your light, share it freely, and witness the meaningful difference it can make in your life and the lives of others. Tune in for a heartfelt conversation about affirming your worth and illuminating the world around you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Ask for What You Want
• 8:35 Shine Your Light Brightly

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:34

Welcome back to the show. So, as you can imagine, I don't script my podcast. I roll with whatever is feeling like something that needs to be talked about in the moment. A lot of times it has to do with things going on in my life. I'm a little bit of a storyteller, but I often find that the things that are going on with me or might be going on with people in my life most of those topics tend to resonate because, you know what? We are all here having our human experience and we often experience a lot of the same things or very similar things anyway. So this week I wanted to talk a little bit about, I'm going to say, people pleasing, but it's not really people pleasing. It's about asking for your wants, needs and desires. I'm going to pull a card, by the way, but not yet I'm going to hold off on that.

Speaker 1: 1:35

I had a couple of situations this last week. It kind of it started with one day where I was going to ask if I could work a particular shift at work. It started with an event that my sister and I were talking about wanting to go to and I was like, oh my gosh, it's on Friday night. I have to work Friday nights. And I was like what if I asked if I could work an opening shift and then I could go? And I was like you know, the answer is probably no. But then I reminded myself that the answer is always no unless you ask. And so I asked and the answer was yes. And so I got to go out with my sister on Friday night and it was really fun. We went to a free music in the park event and it was a lot of fun. And so I was really happy that I decided, rather than just assuming that the answer would be no, I asked.

Speaker 1: 2:26

So a few days later I was at the grocery store and I was looking for chocolate muffins. One of my managers was leaving and he loves chocolate muffins and I was like that would be nice to get him chocolate muffins on his last day. And I went to the that would be nice to get him chocolate muffins on his last day. And I went to the store first thing in the morning and you would think that they would have fresh muffins right in the morning, and they didn't. They had other kinds of muffins, but they didn't have any chocolate. And so I kind of wandered around a little bit and there was a guy that was working there and he noticed me wandering around working there and he noticed me wandering around and then he finally came over and he said are you not finding what you're looking for? And I said, no, I was actually hoping you guys had chocolate muffins. And he's like well, why don't you go over and ask in the bakery? They might have some that just aren't out yet. So I was like, okay, I'll do that. And so I went over and I asked and she was like well, how many do you need? We have some, but they're they. Do you need we have some? But they're, they're like just out of the oven and they're still cooling. And then one of the other guys was like do you have more shopping to do? I'm like no, no, I don't, I really need them right now. And so they ended up packaging them up for me and so they were extra fresh because they had just come out of the oven.

Speaker 1: 3:34

So I made a point to go over to the man that had suggested that I ask and I said thank you so much for reminding me that the answer is always no, unless you ask. And he kind of laughed, but it's so true. And then I started thinking the other day about how often do we not ask for our wants, needs and desires to be met because we don't want to bother somebody, we don't want to inconvenience. We assume they're going to say no, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and all of that bullshit that we tell ourselves. Because I was like, oh my gosh, we are actually continually reinforcing how unimportant we are. Think about that. I might be talking about a chocolate muffin or a shift at work or whatever, but isn't that reminding myself that I don't matter, that what I want isn't important and that I don't deserve to have my needs met, continually reinforcing that just by not asking for something that I want over and over and over again. I needed a hug this week and I asked a friend. I'm like, over and over and over again, I needed a hug this week and I asked a friend, I'm like I could really use a hug Sometimes. Let me take that back.

Speaker 1: 4:45

All of the times, we at least ask. Ask for what you want, ask for what you need. If you need help, ask for help and allow yourself to receive. It's just this whole intertwined mess that we put ourselves in and again reinforce our lack of worthiness, our lack of importance, because we don't want to bother other people or we think that our needs aren't important enough. Really, take that in.

Speaker 1: 5:17

This literally started this whole thought process for me literally was triggered by asking, by feeling like I didn't want to ask to work a different shift, even though I wanted to go do something fun with my sister, and I almost didn't do it, so I would have missed out on this really fun evening with her out in the beautiful weather, listening to amazing music, meeting a couple of her friends. We had a great time and I almost didn't do it because I didn't want to ask, because I assumed the answer would be no. I assumed the answer would be no. I would invite you to not do that anymore, because all you're doing is consistently reinforcing to yourself that your needs and desires aren't important. What we want to do is open ourselves up to receive, ask for what you want, ask for what you need. You deserve that. We all do.

Speaker 1: 6:17

When you start to do that, you will reinforce to yourself your value, your worthiness and your importance and that what you want and what you desire and what you need is truly, truly important. You know we find ourselves wanting to please other people, to not put them out, to not inconvenience them, to not bother them, to make them happy. But what about you? What you need and want is important too, even if it's a chocolate muffin. So I am here to remind you today that the answer is always going to be no unless you ask. It is always going to be no unless you ask. So, whatever it is that you need or want or desire, just ask. You deserve to have your needs met and it's okay to ask for that If you need help with something, if you need something at the grocery store that's out of stock, if you want it, if you just wanted it.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Not that you don't even need it, it's just something you wanted and they didn't have it or there weren't any available. Maybe they have some in the back, maybe somebody hadn't gotten a chance to restock. You know I'm not talking about big, monumental things all the time. I mean, sometimes it's something as simple as muffins or an evening off of work. But when you don't ask, you are continually reminding yourself that you don't think you're important. You don't think you're important enough, or what you want isn't important enough. So that was what came up for me this week. So now, are you ready to pick a card? We're going to pick a card. So the magic of what if card deck is now available on my website, purepossibilitiesnet. I've shipped several out this week, which is so fun. I love the deck, it's beautiful and I've gotten incredible responses from people and I love helping people, and this will give you a little bit of Shannon every single day when you have your own deck. This is fun. We're totally going to do this every week. Okay, here we go.

Speaker 1: 8:36

What if I'm deeply comfortable sharing and shining my light? What if I'm deeply comfortable sharing and shining my light? What if I'm deeply comfortable sharing and shining my light? You know we impact the people around us with our energy, whether it's positive, uplifting energy or if we're feeling down. And what if you share your light and help to light the way for someone else? We all have a light inside of us and sometimes I know I've had some times over the last several weeks where I felt like my light has been a little bit dim, but then I just reach in and connect and realize that I am a bright light and it's important for me to share it, because people around me need that and I want to help people feel better, and sometimes I need others to shine their light and brighten my day. So what if I'm deeply comfortable sharing and shining my light? All right, my friends, I hope you have the most amazing week.

Speaker 1: 9:51

I have some incredible interviews scheduled that will be coming out in the next few weeks, and between now and then I've got a couple other things up my sleeve that I'm going to chat about, but I felt like this one was really important because it kept coming up for me over and over and over throughout the week, and then it just hit me. I'm like I'm literally reinforcing to myself that I'm unimportant. Every time I don't ask for what I need. So maybe it's a bath, maybe it's some time alone, maybe you need to read a book and you need some time away from your family. Maybe you want to go for a walk, maybe you need to take a break, maybe you need a hug. Whatever it is, don't be afraid to ask for what you need and what you want. I hope you have a beautiful day and an amazing week. Much love.