Prelude: Resistance & Safety
As you work through this course, you are going to experience resistance. Everyone does.
Resistance is the desire to avoid something. It comes up because we want to stay where we are. We don’t want to step into the unfamiliar. Resistance comes up even when – and perhaps especially when – something is very good for us in a way that scares us or that will change us.
Resistance is a slippery, shapeshifting thing. It’s usually rooted in fear but can mask itself as rationality, righteousness, prudence, responsibility, distraction, dismissal, inability to focus and more.
Resistance is pushing discomfort away, which can often feel like something very reasonable or even useful.
Here are some ways resistance can appear:
- Boredom: “this is boring and teaching me nothing” or “I don’t need to do this. I already know it.”
- Struggling to sit down and get to the exercise.
- Distraction, forgetting.
- “Rationality” or “Practicality”: “that would never work because…” or “I can’t do that because.” Often these reasons sound good but don’t hold up when you look closely at them.
- Blaming: “I can’t do it because someone is in my way” or “I can’t because of a completely separately problem”
- Excuses: “It’s because I have too much to do” or “this is not how I do things” or “nobody understands me”
- Dismissal: “This is dumb or trivial” or “this can’t be real”
- Discounting: “Well I would do it, but it won’t change anything anyways.”
- Apathy or Indifference: “meh, who cares” or “this is blah” or “I don’t care about this.”
- Annoyance: “It just irritates me” or “It’s annoying”
- Perfectionism: “I can’t do it at all, unless I can do it perfectly”
- Procrastination: “Later will be a better time to do this” or "I don't have time for this."
Often we act on these feelings before we even consider what their insidious purposes might be. That’s how sneaky our resistance can be.
Resistance can masquerade as intuition. It can tell you it’s not safe when what it means is that you are afraid. Learning to tell the difference between fear that is telling you “this is wrong for me” and fear that is telling you “this is very, very right for me” is one of the most empowering things you can do.
RESISTANCE VS. INTUITION
Resistance is real and powerful, but not all bad feelings are resistance. Sometimes we don’t want to do something because it’s genuinely not right for us.
Working through resistance is complicated by the fact that intuitive practice can be very powerful. It can bring up emotions, trauma, anxiety, and stress. Some of these things require time to process and some things might even require healing before you push on.
There is a difference between resistance, which is avoidance that holds you back and your body or intuition telling you something is genuinely not good for you or not good for you at this time. It’s crucial to learn to tell the difference. On the surface they can seem similar, but when you pay careful attention to the feelings themselves, there are notable differences.
Here are some differences to look for :
- Resistance tends to dissolve the more you attend to it. Intuition remains.
- Resistance tends to appear as thoughts or feelings that are around the head or outer levels of the body. Intuition tends to be located deeper inside, often in the lower abdomen.
Above all, prioritize your health and safety, by listening to yourself carefully whenever something stressful comes up. If you ever feel overwhelmed or unsafe or like you are loosing your grip on reality, take a break. Doing energy work and intuitive peace can bring up a lot for people, especially if you have unresolved trauma or are very sensitive to energy.
The more you tune into yourself and you intuition, the more you might pick up on the energy and experiences of others. You might start having mystical experiences. You might experience a lot of strange coincidences. These are often wonderful and positive experiences, but if you find yourself feeling unsafe or like this is bad for you then take a break. You might feel you need to take days or even weeks or months away from this work. That's okay. Let your intuition be your guide for this.
HOW TO HANDLE BAD FEELINGS
Regardless of whether you think you might just be resisting, make sure you pay attention to stress, anxiety and tight or blocked feelings. Never dismiss a feeling as resistance until you’ve explored it. When in doubt, check what you feel in your abdomen. Then, check what you feel in your heart. If those areas feel open, clear, warm, positive at their centre then that is a good sign.
If you don’t know how to tell the difference between resistance and intuition, then this is definitely something you will want to consciously practice throughout the course. As you complete this course, whenever you find yourself distracted, not wanting to complete something, stressed by it, or anything else, try not to avoid the work but don’t force yourself through it either. Instead, take a moment to notice the feelings. By noticing what you feel and allowing the feelings to tell you what they mean, you can learn to move through resistance without forcing or working against yourself.
Awareness and self-trust are linked. The more you trust yourself to know what is good for you and to take care of yourself, the more you can expand. You will not grow as well if you cannot trust yourself or if you do not know what feels safe for you. If you are confident in this ability that is great, if you are not yet confident in this, than take the time you need to build this as you go.
It’s important to have tools and strategies to protect you and give you control over how much you let in and when and in which situations you are open to energy. So before you jump into the course, take some time to do todays exercises. You will practice creating a protective bubble around yourself.
EXERCISES
- Complete the Energy Bubble Meditation (7 min)
You can use these practices throughout the course to protect yourself and your energy. You can use the meditation audio or simply take yourself through the practice before practicing or whenever you feel you want to.
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