Hello hello and welcome to episode 80! I can’t believe I’ve recorded 80 podcasts. Amazing. Today I want to talk about resistance. You know when you are feeling like you just can’t do something or that you don’t want to. This was on my mind today as I’ve been seeing it so often in my own life and with my clients.
Recently, I recommitted to deeply experiencing my spiritual practices, one of which is meditation and not believing the messages of karmic conditioning. I’ve been upping my awareness practice so that I notice more and more subtle little things in my life. Now, I meditate every day and 90 percent of the time I meditate in the morning before I do anything else because I tend to enjoy the day so much more if I do.
The last two days, things happened in the morning to prevent me from doing that, so I meditated later in the day. No big deal, right? Except today because I woke up in so much resistance to meditation. I noticed this morning there was so much resistance to doing this thing that I’ve been doing for years. It was a very loud “I don’t want to!” in my head. So notice that it wasn’t just the resistance, it wasn’t just the loud voice in my head- it was also that suddenly a practice that has been very solid of waking up and meditating was derailed. Then more obvious resistance showed up to this thing that I’ve committed to practicing more deeply in my life. There were two types of resistance.
This is such an important process to watch because it arises time and time again- but we don’t notice that it is a very subtle form of resistance. It sneaks up on us and we think that we are tired and therefore we aren’t going to meditate, or cook the meal, or exercise, or whatever it is we committed to just a few days or weeks ago. I commit to doing something, and almost immediately I get side-tracked.
We also have these conditioned messages in our society that if we don’t want to do something we should just drop it. This is a tricky one to explain because I’m all for *not* doing what doesn’t light you up, AND there are things that from our heart we make a commitment to. I made a commitment to my spiritual practice because I love it- not from a place of should or supposed to. I wanted to- and then there was resistance.
Here’s the interesting thing. I didn’t listen to the resistance. Instead of thinking that I should listen to the resistance, I decided to notice it, I even called it resistance, and was aware of it and reminded myself of my commitment. I reminded myself of what my heart really and truly wanted.
Maybe you’ve noticed something in your own life that you want- that you really and truly want from your heart and YET there is so much resistance that shows up. Perhaps you’ve committed to eating one more vegetable a day, and suddenly you look down at your plate one day and there isn’t a single vegetable on it. Or you might be eating out and notice the voice in your head telling you sweetly “oh you should treat yourself tonight; just one night without a vegetable won’t make a difference.”
This is the voice of resistance. You might be thinking- but Rebecca “So what? Why does this matter?” It matters because noticing and becoming aware of the resistance is like following the yellow brick road to what you really want. Sometimes the resistance is because you are doing something you think you should be doing, and sometimes it is pointing you back to what is going to really serve you in your life.
How is that possible? How can both be true? In my experience, when there are things that I really want and that are in alignment for me, the resistance can come from the possibility of actually having joy and goodness in my life! The other is pretty clear- I can have resistance to something because it is actually not in alignment. If I’m not listening to myself and my guides, then I might think well everyone is doing XYZ and now I have to do that too, instead of checking in with what I REALLY want.
And this is the magic of resistance. When we are paying attention and aware of what is happening, you notice the resistance and you can use that as a placeholder to check in with yourself. You notice resistance arise, and then you can get curious about the resistance- isn’t it interesting that resistance is here…I wonder what that is about. This can provide so much good information and lead you to what you really want. You just use the same process again and again.
Ok friends. I hope this is helpful– this is why resistance is so amazing. It feels horrible and it is the path that leads you to gold. Keep watching that resistance and let me know what you see. If you need some support, I have a free min-session so you can move out of resistance. Ok dear ones, take good care of yourselves. I’ll talk to you soon.
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