No

​Sometimes it seems the hardest thing to do is to say no to myself.
I am used to living a fairly comfortable lifestyle.  On the whole (and it is obvious when something is out of reach) when I want something I can have it.   For me, that mainly involves small things.  Like something to eat when I want it.  Or another 10 minutes rest, or stopping something not because it is the right thing to do, but because it is what I want to do.
To me often it is an accumulation of little things that stop a flow in me, or divert me from a course of action.  I thought of Beavers.  They are famous for building dams across creeks.  Yet those dams are not constructed of one massive tree but of many smaller branches.  Enough small things do the same as one big thing.  In the case of the Beaver, it builds a dam.
For me a dam can be a positive or negative thing.  When it involves me building an edifice that hinders or stops a good flow in me, it is not a good thing.  It seems a lot of my small surrenders to myself see me not equipped to face larger challengers.  The more I dam inspiration that costs, the more likely I am to stagnate.
I have had a change of thinking recently about wants and needs.  Wants are not automatically a bad thing or an illegitimate aspiration.  A long time ago I bought many leaves to house stamps.  For sure I needed them to complete the task I had in mind.  Yet really it was a want.    I would not have died because I did not have them.  But I wanted them and got them.
For me the key is “legitimate.”  By legitimate I mean right thing at the right time in the right place.  Sometimes denial is the right thing at the right time in the right place.  Not always, but sometimes.  It is recognising the times it is right that is important to me.
It seems all my personal growth involves me negotiating the maze of denial and acceptance.  I only ever grow through denial.
Vines for wine are pruned.  Denial of one form of self-expression leads to greater fruitfulness.  Cutting back or not allowing stagnation is never the easy path, but at the right time, in the right way and the right place, it is always the route to greater fruitfulness and self-fulfilment.