Resistance and Desire

Whenever we want to change something about ourselves, be it a behaviour, a way of thinking, a habit or even the way we look, what we fail to understand is that as soon as we make this decision to exact a change, we fail to account for resistance this desire will bring up in us. Therefore, when one makes a New Year’s resolution within weeks it is a distant memory as the habit of your mindset and body dominate any newness you are trying to begin.

What if you were to begin from a point of knowing that resistance will come up immediately for you and take steps to plan for it. In this way, you begin in a position of power rather than servitude to your habitual behaviours. You decide you would like to be more active and you find a sport you like and desire to commit to it. Before even signing up at the gym or the class you wish to take, sit and consider every excuse you will come up with NOT to attend your class or workout schedule. You may list that your mind will tell you are too tired, you are not feeling up to it, it is too cold to go outside, you want to watch TV, you should work late or you just can’t be bothered. These and many more excuses affected me in my life at one time or another when pursuing any change and these thwarted my progress time and time again until I decided to get in front of this behaviour.

First, I had to be clear on what it was that I desired to change. Then I had to work out why I wanted this change and how it could benefit me. I then went through all the excuses that I previously succumbed to in the past and decided to pose myself one question whenever a thought or feeling came up that impeded my progress. When I desired to practice yoga, I knew the winter months were my kryptonite, the pull of a toasty house and my onesie after work with a glass of red wine was extremely appealing as opposed to putting on leggings, facing the cold, rain or wind and attending a cold school hall to practice yoga. I would ask myself just one question, how does attending this class make you feel? Are you willing to forego that feeling for what you normally do every single day?

It was this feeling that spurred me out of the door and onto my mat.

Sometimes, the very thing that is good for us, that makes us feel good, that takes us out of our comfort zone and gives us a glimpse of the best version of ourselves is easily sabotaged by the mental programmes that continuously play in our minds. Then when we stop seeking this feeling, stop going to class, stop doing whatever we were doing that made us feel better we rational that what we were doing did not work because we are back feeling the same way. The irony is that we miss the obvious. We STOPPED doing what made us feel good and replaced it with what kept us in our status quo.

So, in this New Year of 2018, decide if you are willing to follow the feeling of feeling good…..NO MATTER WHAT?

Stay tuned for more nuggets of getting out of your own way!