Hello spiritual friends!
If you ever find yourself tensing up at the thought of someone or a situation in your life, wishing it would disappear. It might be a person, your job, the unpaid bills, work around the house that needs done or any obligation that feels out of alignment with who you are in the moment. It may show up as a need to be right in a conversation or become activated reading the newspaper about the divisive political climate we have today. Your energy contracts, your shoulders and neck constrict, your stomach to churns or you find yourself procrastinating to avoid some issue or wishing you could control it. If you had any of these feelings, you may have been experiencing some form of resistance.
What is resistance?
Resistance activates mind chatter: those circulating thoughts that keep coming up as the analytical part of your brain tries to find a solution. Or it ignites fear, worry or other emotions when you think about the issue or situation. We may find ourselves avoiding or procrastinating about a task, a phone call, a step or response that is needed. We might feel angry about something impossible for us to change. Even physical pain becomes heightened when we resist what is happening in our bodies due to an injury, illness or physical disability. Resistance amplifies suffering and makes a situation feel worse than it already is.
Resistance is a form of your body saying "no". It looks like, "I don't want to", "I can't", "I won't", "I don't like". We are energetically pushing away at some mental concept and resisting it. We are closing the door. One problem with resistance is that it takes so much energy to hold that door closed. That energy could be re-routed into a yes pointed in a positive direction that resonates more fully with our inner spirit.
Resistant energy patterns
When we are in resistance our emotions and mind chatter become more active and work against us. The lower chakras open as we begin to run energies of fear, worry or we feel the urge to try to control a situation that we truly have no control over. This causes our analytical mind to run repeating thoughts, possible scenarios, digging for alternative solutions. Our intuitive-spiritual mind has the insight and tools to drive us peacefully through the mess. But it can't survive in this chaotic energy and seems to disappear. As a result, we may feel lost, unsupported and even more resistant to what is happening.
Choosing peace
Releasing resistance helps create more peace in our bodies and literally opens up our perspective. Our shoulders drop, the lower chakras relax, the brain sends those comforting happy hormones out into the body and we feel better. When we are relaxed, the intuitive mind opens up. Trust in our own natural capability returns. Relaxing the body helps creates positive energy around us and we begin to see solutions that were previously hidden from view.
An interesting quirk about resistance is that it tends to lie hidden and dormant until an issue or challenge in life shows up. We may not even be aware that it is there. Then all of a sudden, the challenge appears, and our resistance and all those feelings are activated again.
Releasing resistance
Releasing resistance begins with a thought. It is a decision we make. Many of us think we must release the resistance and get back into the peace and flow of life. Then we will feel lighter, happier and have a fresh perspective on everything. But the truth is it may be easier to begin with the thinking part first.
Amusement
Consider looking at the situation from a lighter perspective or even in a humorous way. In the energetic world, we call this amusement. Amusement may mean seeing something funny about a situation that isn't funny, or just choosing to see the see the lighter side it. Fear and worry tend to distort the weight or impact of an issue to be more dreadful that it really is. Shifting our perspective to see a lighter side of a challenge can do wonders to help us change our thinking. Watching a comedy or funny program is a great way to lighten up.
Neutrality
One way to release resistance is to choose to be neutral or more objective about the issue. The situation is truly just a fact and the resistant energy (feelings, frustration, desire to control, fear) are within us. We create the resistance with our thoughts. What stories have we made up in our minds that create the resistant energy? The outcome may be a crisis, but in what ways does the story get exaggerated in our minds? Can we soften it to become more neutral, and recognize that we decide how we feel about it?
Compassion
A little compassion for ourselves and others can go a long way to help calm resistance. When we are struggling with the issues of life, many of us tend to bury a layer of judgement underneath the resistance. This might be judgement about what someone is doing that we resist. Or it may be unconscious self-judgement, that causes us to punish ourselves for doing, not doing or feeling a certain way. Even, "why is this happening to me" has a little underlying judgment that says I am wrong, I did something wrong or someone else did.
Make a decision to let go
Once our body and mind feel calmer, we can choose to let the resistance go. We might look at the result of the resistance and ask if this energy is really serving our highest and best good. At this point we may decide the heightened pain resistance is causing in our lives makes things worse and say goodbye to it. Truly, that is all there is to it: Changing our story. When we shift our minds, body and energy to think about those niggling thoughts and patterns in a lighter way, the energy follows. We make a decision to let go. Resistance falls away and peace flows.
When our body, mind and spirit shift to a more peaceful energy, we come to center with our truest self. New doors may open with a fresh perspective. We are saying, "Yes to life". We may find new choices becoming available. We feel empowered to create real change that may help solve the issue or move us away from it. Or, we may discover we can live alongside the person or situation and feel less bothered by it or them. Let's face it, our resistance did nothing to solve a problem or change another person in our life. It was only impacting our inner sense of peace.
Moving from resistance to peace
- Find amusement, a lighter perspective
- Move to neutrality
- Invite compassion in
- Make a decision to let resistance go
Please contact me if I can help you move through resistance or challenges in your life with an intuitive reading or healing session.
Peace and blessings to you on your spiritual journey!
Sue
