How do you respond when your brain resists the idea of moving or meditating or doing any of the other things that are challenging in the short term but beneficial in the long term?
Do you try to stubborn your way through the resistance?
(I have had moderate success with this some of the time.)
Do you give into the resistance and just avoid your wellness plans?
(I’ve done this regularly in the past. It did not make me feel any better and I did not become any fitter nor did it lower my stress levels.)
Or, do you respect your resistance and try to figure out why it is coming up right now?
(This has been my most useful approach for dealing with resistance.)
Once you get curious about the nature of your resistance, you can often address some of the challenges that tend to bring it to the forefront.
Sure, sometimes resistance is just inertia – a kind of energy-based reluctance to change from your current state to new one and that’s when stubbornly pushing ahead will probably help.
Otherwise, though, resistance could have useful information for you.
Asking yourself questions about the specific nature of your resistance will bring any frustrations about your wellness plans to your conscious mind. Once you are consciously aware of the issues, you can decide how to address them.
(Even though we are trying to find out the ‘why’ of our resistance, I haven’t actually found it all that useful to ask myself why I am resisting my own plan.
Instead, I ask myself ‘What would I need to get started?’
Either question works, of course, and so would many others. Choose one that suits *you* best.)
Perhaps you are resisting your exercise session because you find it too cold when you are getting started.
Maybe you don’t want to exercise because you hate the music in the video you follow.
Your program might be too challenging for you right now, or you may find it lonely to exercise alone, you may be trying to exercise or meditate at the ‘wrong’ time of day, or doing certain exercises may stir up a bad feeling for you.
Perhaps you’ll realize that the goal you initially set isn’t actually all that important to you. Or maybe you’ll discover that you have accidentally been following a program someone else said that you ‘should’ do.
(Personally, I always resist a should but I don’t always realize that I’m doing it until I get curious about my resistance.)
No matter what comes up for you during this process, you will probably have the information you need to go into problem-solving mode.
Once you are in problem-solving mode, you can give yourself and your resistance the respect you both deserve and find ways to make it easier to get moving.
PS: If you’d like some help brainstorming any obstacles you uncover in this process, let me know in the comments and I’ll put my brain in your storm for a while.
This one may suit some: for one year, a friend replaced Should with Could. I could go for a walk… Ideally a teeny tiny five minute walk that mysteriously becomes longer
Excellent addition! Thanks, Rachel!