What do sales, hypnosis, and meditation all have in common? Yes. All three involve internal acceptance, or saying "Yes." We have to soften ourselves for any of these to happen. We have to relax the mind-body. We have to accept.

In sales, obviously, a customer must say "yes" in order to make a purchase, but more important than the external yes, is the internal yes. Usually, the customer must say "yes" to themselves (internally) several times before they will actually make the purchase. The satisfaction of acceptance is the primary reason for most purchases.

Hypnosis puts a client into any variety of altered states in order to learn faster, change habits, deeply relax, etc. In order for this to happen, though, the client must accept the instructions of the hypnotist. Even if self-hypnosis, you have to relax and accept the process: you have to say "yes" to yourself! The depth of trance is directly proportional to the acceptance of the subject.

In meditation, this ability to accept is sometimes referred to as equanimity or non-judgment. Not only is this paramount to your ability to sit in silence, but this is also the skill that will allow you to bring your practice of meditation to your day-to-day life. When you sit quietly, thoughts inevitably arise. Fighting this will only make it worse. Accepting it will not only reduce it, but will also give you the power to direct it as you see fit.

The reason I am pointing out this similarity is to emphasize the necessity of acceptance in change. Making a purchase involves acceptance. The use of hypnosis (on self or others) requires acceptance. The meditative (transcendental) experience is based largely on the practitioner's ability to accept whatever comes up. When you build a momentum of acceptance in your meditation practice, it will gradually spread to every moment of your everyday life. Now that you have an acceptance of what is, you can begin to transform it as you see fit. This holds true whether you are working to achieve tremendous success in your life, or to simply change your state of mind.

Go ahead and give it a try right now. Say "yes". Try it internally and externally. Play with using different tonalities. Notice any tension in your body. Know that it is okay to have tension. Say "yes" to it. Notice any frustrations in your life. Know that we are all human, and we all have frustrations. Accept your frustrations.
When we say "yes", when we allow the mind-body to relax, we experience a satisfaction. The depth of this satisfaction is directly proportional to the depth of the acceptance.

The deeper you say "yes", the deeper your experience will be!