Meeting Resistance with Love

“The wound is the place where the light enters you”.

~Rumi

Resistance is a natural part of the change process.  

Pleasant?  No, but often necessary to propel us to the next level of our growth.  
 
When we are in that space of resistance we are tuned in to all of the aspects of ourselves that are in the dance of change.  

We are able to access those places where we are wounded, scared, collapsed, insecure, and confused.  Those places of self-sabotage and avoidance. 

Those places of vulnerability, trembling knees, racing hearts, and also simultaneously those places within us that hold clarity, truth, conviction, and the deep inner, empowered knowing of who we are.  
 
How we meet these moments of resistance determines our course of life.  We can certainly pull the covers over our heads and remain hunkered in our patterns. 
 
Or we can meet this resistance with love, with acceptance, and with tenderness.  We can honor our fears, our insecurities, and our fragmented, wounded selves.  
 
Rather than avoid our raw human experience, we can choose to feel our feelings, take steps out of our comfort zone, and stand tall in the truth of exactly who we are.  
 
We can find that genuine acceptance of ourselves and the courage to take our own hands and guide ourselves forward. We can meet the resistance with unconditional love.  
 
We can meet ourselves with honor and bow to the bravery that it takes to show up every single day with consciousness, with presence, and with the desire to continuously step boldly forward.  

To rise tall.  

To become even more full of the authentic and unique embodiment of who we are in the world. 
 
Resistance can show up when we are challenging the stories that we have carried around with us and are beginning to step out of.  Resistance can also rear its head even when we know that the action we need (and want!) to take is a positive one.  

Everyone has their moments of resistance with various flavors. I will share with you an example of my own personal patterns of resistance which potentially feeds an experience of self-sabotage. 

For the past 5 years I have been awakening at 5:00am for a daily meditation practice. This sacred morning meditation time has been an essential component of my life providing me with infinite benefits.  I know that I feel so much better on the whole when I take this time in the mornings to connect to myself. 

Yet, I can honestly say that every single day that my alarm rings at that wee hour I meet my personal resistance.  I start listing every reason possible as to why I should stay in bed, why I don't really need to meditate, why I am absolutely justified to pull the covers over my head and skip it, that I am too tired, too cold, and on and on and on.

In those moments I acknowledge my resistance, feel myself attaching to old patterns, feel the part of me that is scared to show up fully for life, and acknowledge and recognize my egos attempt as keeping me hidden. I choose to meet this resistance and honor what is surfacing.

I turn the alarm off, take some deep breaths, give thanks for another day to be alive and able to meditate, put my hands on my body out of love and connection, find my breath, feel my heart, and make my way downstairs to my meditation cushion.  

While some days are easier than others, on the whole this place of resistance lives in me and requires consistent connection, honest dialogue, and a lot of self-love. 

Where do you meet resistance in your day-to-day life?  

What patterns of resistance to change are you spinning in?  

Are there any action steps that you are ready to take to meet this resistance with love and step forward?  

Where do you feel as though you can challenge yourself?  

Are there any small steps through the resistance that you can begin taking right now?  

When we let go of the stories that we are too tired, too busy, not good enough, too much, not worthy, not skilled enough, too short, too tall, too round, too verbal…whatever version and flavor of the story you carry around....the ego panics.  

Our sense of safety becomes questioned and it takes an immense amount of our will, inner strength, and a solid commitment to acknowledging these aspects of ourselves, these places of resistance, and moving forward anyhow.  

That is the key.  When things in life get sticky, when you come up against those voices that want to hold you back from moving forward, when you are feeling pulled out of your shell and your shit is surfacing....

Hold yourself in the highest light with compassion, unwavering acceptance, and the deepest, most unconditional love that you can find in your heart.
 

Feel yourself, feel your feelings, feel your experiences, feel your resistance and meet it all with love.