Persistance & The Path of Least Resistance
As I sit down to write this newsletter (which i’ve already pushed back 5 times in my diary) I feel the resistance rising. This time, I’m not running away, procrastinating or making excuses, i’m choosing the path of least resistance & I’m sitting here to meet with it.
Have you ever tried to make a positive, conscious change in your life and been hit up against your own destructive and defeating thoughts and behaviours? You have set out to let go of a behaviour that was no longer serving you to bring in more positive, healthy, nurturing ways, yet you have the strongest force pulling you to act in the complete opposite way.
This is resistance - and if you want to make change in your life, you’ve got to make friends with it.
Resistance is a characteristic of change and an obstacle that always needs to be faced no matter how big or small the desired change. It’s a common experience, one that we can feel in our bodies - in the places where we hold and grip and we can also feel it deeply within our hearts,
Resistance brings up a whole lot of emotions - frustration, anger, irritability and guilt - so what is it that we need to do to get past it?
There are several ways to deal with it - deny it, push it away, hide it, procrastinate or push right through it. This can cause greater issues as we don’t allow ourselves the space to see where we need to act or we force ourselves to do something that we are not yet ready to do. If we ignore it, the persistence of desire it still there, it does not go away and it makes the process and actions we need to go forward with much harder.
Instead, what we need to do, is choose the path of least resistance. Now, the path of least resistance, isn’t the path of NO resistance. It doesn’t mean that by wanting to make a change, it’s going to be really easy, no obstacles & no resistance. What it does mean, is meeting the resistance. Coming right up to it, getting close, feeling it, hearing it and getting to know it.
Having the initial thought or desire to bring change means that this possibility is within your energy field. The vibration is up there, we’ve just got to raise ourselves to reach it and to make it manifest. Resistance is your call to action! It can feel so uncomfortable because it is a pulling of the two energies within us. Our higher self, who wants to grow and our current self, bound with shadows and conditioning who is happy to stay the same and be in the place that is known.
It’s safer to stay in the comfortable, in the place that we are familiar with, where we have control. But the call is still there - loud, strong and persistent. Our hearts, our truth is calling, is shouting - something is ready to be transformed and we must listen. We must be willing to feel into the uncomfortable, to meet the resistance, listen to its message and evolve.
In meeting resistance and taking action to change, we must be prepared for what needs to die within us, and ask ourselves the question ‘what do we need to let go of, as we open and create space for what is being born?’
So what do I need to do? You ask yourself. Slowly you begin to realise that even this question is a distraction, a form of procrastination - RESISTANCE! All that we need to do, is far simpler. We need to just sit, with an open heart, to experience and feel all that is arising, no matter how painful, uncomfortably and frightening that is. To just sit and wait for the right message, the right action to reveal itself, trusting that the divine one in you will speak when the time is right. You may have to wait a day, a week or even a year, but when it’s ready to be revealed it will show up. But you have to be ready and willing.
So the next time you feel resistance building in your body - don’t run away, don’t hide. Know that it’s a message that it’s time for transformation and that bigger things are coming your way. It’s time for growth and expansion, all that you need to do is soften into it. Pay attention, open your heart, and trust that all you need to know and do will reveal itself to you. Always choosing the path of least resistance.
written by alex bottomley