I recently was listening to a meditation podcast, which I like to do sometimes. This one was from the Mediation Society of Australia – check it out if you get a chance. The podcast was about how the body, mind and spirit can stand in the way of having a good meditation session. What he was saying was you might have the intention to meditate, but your body resists and wants to do something else, or your mind wanders, and you are caught up emotionally in something.
I thought it was an interesting idea and in thinking about it realized that there are lots of things in my life where I’ve put up resistance. For example, I resist doing the dishes. Even though it’s the chore I say I’ll do, I love having a clean kitchen, doing dishes can even be meditative. Instead I put up huge resistance. I surf on the internet, read facebook, take naps…I’ll do ANYTHING to not do the dishes. It’s silly. The thing that I realize, though, is I am the one putting up resistance, so I can be the one removes it. It’s actually empowering thinking about it this way.
I think we can all come up with examples of resistance in our lives — from what I mentioned about dishes all the way to getting in our own way to be successful in our work, our love, our lives. It may be a good exercise for you to think of some things that you are putting up resistance to and try for a week to gently remove the resistance and more be the person you want to be.
Enjoy the attached video focusing on the theme of resistance. Take care – John