Resistance To Openings

I don’t see an Opening. Actually, I’d rather not right now. I’m staying where I am.

Why We Resist

There are lots of reasons we resist what is good for us, what is challenging and what can move us forward. Our resistance keeps us safe, helps us avoid something difficult, allows us to ignore what is before us or keeps us in our comfort zone. The only problem is that resistance does us no good.

Many things can cause us to resist. Fear can be present in many shapes and disguises. Fear often is underneath our reasons for not entering an Opening – taking the form of not seeing the Opening, convincing ourselves the Opening is not good for us, making excuses that now is not the time or looking away from the Opening.

We resist because change is often uncomfortable. We want to stay where we are. Our comfort zones feel good. We have a sense of safety right where we are. But resistance is also futile – the world changes and moves and eventually we must move with it. We are meant to grow, learn and experience new things. Life is dynamic, not static.

Recognizing Resistance

Resistance knows how to hide from us and we know how to bury it deeply. We tend to call it all kinds of things, except for what it really is – holding ourselves back from advancing in our lives. We are expert at rationalizing that we are not resisting, but are doing something else. Resistance is complex and develops over a lifetime, getting stronger if we do not recognize it.

Resistance, inevitably, will be a part of our lives at certain times. To recognize it, we must first acknowledge that we are capable of resistance, we have resisted in the past and we will do so in the future. It makes sense to get to know what shapes our resistance can take and how we can recognize it.

To begin to recognize resistance, look back on when resistance was present in our lives. When did we turn away? What form did our resistance take? Denial? Anger? Fear? What was the result of our resistance? Did what we were avoiding happen anyway? Did we suffer certain consequences because of our resistance?