What You Resist Persists

The quote "What You Resist Persists" often comes to my mind as I observe myself or someone else avoiding something that creates discomfort, resentment, regret or anger. Remembering this quote is a great tool to keep in your JOY toolbox.

I am currently connecting the meaning of this saying to my procrastination of doing some revision work on the curriculum for Project: Inside Out. Although I love creating the curriculum activities (that is fun for me), I am resisting doing some fine tuning needed before it goes to print. It takes the joy out of it for me. It feels hard. So, what do I do? I resist doing it. Of course, the post-it note for this job is sitting on my desk, constantly reminding me of my resistance. Instead of doing it, I look for anything else that can be done first that I would enjoy more. I make a list of many other things, which I complete one by one, although still feeling the empty feeling of not getting this one job done. Next day.... same story. I have been resisting this task for a month. It does not fulfill me to avoid it. The responsibility persists.

Another common area of resistance for people is in relationships. Perhaps there is someone in your life that you are no longer comfortable in being with. Maybe they hurt you and you are holding resentment and anger towards them. What is being resisted in this case would be perhaps having a potentially difficult conversation. The resentment is not going away, the person that you're upset with is not going away and the discomfort in the relationship persists. It doesn't feel good, yet you resist dealing with it.

If we would just attend to the things we'd prefer not to do earlier rather than later we would save ourselves valuable time and potential suffering at various levels. Our lives would have much more room to enjoy the things we love.

What are you resisting? How will you feel when you have followed through with taking care of it? What might you learn about yourself in your process? How do you want to be in your life....moving ahead with confidence or limited by your own resistance?

Okay, I just inspired myself. I hereby commit to doing the revisions on one lesson plan by the end of the day. Wow, I feel freer already!