What exactly is standing between you and the person you want to be? Resistance. It’s the difference between the person you are right now and the person you know you have the potential to become. Resistance is that enormous elephant in the room that we can’t ignore and we don’t know what to do about.
“Befriend feelings of resistance by telling an interesting story about them. Maybe it’s a magnificent emerald dragon guarding a room full of treasure. The resistance is a guard for what you want most that you don’t think you can have.” -Ehime Ora
These days, resistance is often romanticized. It’s offered up as a kind of socially acceptable explanation for that enigmatic sense of existential dread that sinks its claws into us. You know the kind that conveniently crops up whenever you struggle to check a particularly onerous task off your to-do list or follow through on something? A secret I find helpful is reframing resistance as discomfort. Suddenly, it loses its power and quicksand-like psychological hold.
“I’m struggling with discomfort,” sounds a lot less glamorous than, “I’m struggling with resistance,” am I right? Resistance seems intangible somehow, as though it defies rational explanation and materializes from the ether. In contrast, a battle with discomfort is more concrete. Simply by reframing resistance, your problem is transfigured into a garden-variety obstacle to overcome. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Just like pulling off the disguise of the Scooby Gang’s monster-of-the-week renders the villain a lot less scary, unmasking resistance for what it is makes it significantly easier to defeat.
Fortunately, it also means that the only thing standing in the way of you and that bestselling novel, half-marathon, meditation practice, trip to Mykonos, starting that business or [insert goal here] is a little discomfort. So basically, if you make being comfortable with discomfort your superpower, the world becomes your oyster. That thing you’ve always dreamed about is within reach. You are now free to follow your soul’s calling or inner nudges because you’re not going to let a little thing like discomfort stand in your way.
Famous sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov penned 500 books in his lifetime. That’s roughly 2 books per week! How was he so prolific, you might ask? Asimov was in the habit of writing daily and, “put words on paper even if the muse did not visit him that day. He scoffed at the idea of ‘writer’s block.’ His father was a candy store owner in Brooklyn who opened his doors at 6 am every day, whether or not he felt like it. The elder Asimov did so without ever complaining about ‘shop-keeper’s block’ (Rank, 2015).” Isaac wrote in a simple, bare-bones style and when he hit a creative wall, he’d pivot to a different book, article or project and the so-called rut he was in would mysteriously evaporate.
Facing resistance is not about being the best at something. And it’s not about being perfect either. It’s about getting out there and taking action. Because when you’re actively trying there’s no such thing as failure; there are only lessons learned that shape you into a well-rounded and wiser person. Facing resistance is about showing up for yourself rain or shine, despite the discomfort. It’s about feeling the fear and doing it anyways.
In Rudolf Steiner’s How to Know Higher Worlds, this is a crucial part of the spiritual initiation known as the fire trial. The objective of this trial is to develop self-confidence, courage and a greater sense of endurance than is typically achieved (in 3D). By daring to leave your comfort zone you are inevitably transformed by the flames of the alchemical fire. In facing resistance discomfort, little by little and step by step, you can watch as your goals + dreams become reality.
Sources:
Pressfield, Steven. The War of Art. London, Orion, 2003.
Rank, Michael. “How Isaac Asimov Wrote 500+ Books (or “3 Writing Habits for Long-Term Success”).” Develop Good Habits, 25 May 2015, www.developgoodhabits.com/isaac-asimov/.
