Honoring Your Resistance

Do you resist completing a project or doing your daily meditation? We often think that resistance is bad and needs to be overcome or that we are weak or uncommitted. Join me in this trauma-informed practice of honoring the wisdom of our resistance, exploring the somatic experience of this protective state.
This track contains ambient sounds in the background

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this practice.

I'm so glad you're here with me today.

We all have experienced resistance,

A defiant stance against someone or something.

Perhaps you're resisting a work project,

Avoiding cleaning the house,

Sitting for meditation,

Or having a difficult conversation with someone.

Most often we feel bad,

Guilty or silly for having this resistance.

We may judge ourselves sometimes severely,

Saying things like,

I must not want to feel better because I'm not practicing my meditation,

Or I'm so stupid for procrastinating,

Or what's wrong with me?

If we label resistance as a bad thing,

Then we're always struggling with ourselves.

What if there is a greater wisdom in resistance?

Practicing mindful inquiry about our resistance can offer profound insights into its protective benevolence in our lives.

Let's begin.

You can practice sitting,

Standing,

Or lying down with eyes open or closed.

Notice in what posture you have the least resistance.

You can settle yourself by taking a few deep breaths and encouraging your exhalation to be a bit longer than your inhalation.

Longer exhales,

Shorter inhales.

This pattern of breathing can help you slow down and become more present.

Now choose a mild to moderate issue that you are resisting to use in this practice.

Perhaps you're resisting sitting and meditating,

Or exercising,

Or doing a work project.

Or you're sitting in a room,

Or you're sitting in a room,

Or you're sitting in a room,

Or you're sitting in a room,

Or you're sitting in a room,

Or you're exercising,

Or doing a work project.

Try not to take on the biggest resistance you are experiencing until you have more practice with this meditation.

Imagine this issue,

Noting some details of it.

Next,

See if you can feel the physical sensation of this resistance in your body.

That is,

How do you know you're resisting?

Notice where in your body you feel it.

Perhaps you're feeling the resistance in your chest,

Your throat,

Face,

Hands,

Or gut.

Describe to yourself the qualities of this sensation.

Is it tight,

Jumbled,

Speedy,

Or heavy?

See if you can find a few words that accurately describe this physical sensation of the resistance.

Does it have a color,

Texture,

Or particular material it's made out of?

Does it feel like a stone wall,

Or iron armor,

Or a tight band constricting a part of your body?

Continue to watch these sensations of the resistance with an attitude of kind curiosity,

And see what happens next in your body as you explore it.

Do the sensations shift as you attend to them?

Perhaps the feeling broadens or spreads to another body area.

Maybe the texture,

Color,

Or shape of the resistance changes.

Or maybe it stays exactly the same.

Remember that we're not focusing on this resistance to get rid of it.

We are mindfully exploring the qualities of this feeling and state in our bodies without judgments or labels.

If possible,

See if you can open up a dialogue with the resistance.

You can ask,

How are you serving me,

Dear resistance?

Or,

Are you protecting me from overwhelm or feeling too much at once?

Or,

Are you trying to pace my energy output?

Use any question that feels relevant in your particular situation.

After asking your question,

Wait for a response.

You don't have to think hard about this or try to come up with an answer.

See if you can let a response organically rise in your awareness.

This may or may not come in words,

But can show up as images,

Sensations,

An emotion,

Or an intuitive knowing.

Give yourself time and space for a response to emerge.

If a dialogue isn't happening yet,

That's really okay.

It takes time to build an alliance with resistance or any of our emotions.

If you are getting some reflections or insights,

What is your resistance sharing with you?

Is there a nugget of wisdom in what it has to say?

Can you work in harmony with your resistance,

Sensing that it has a protective function in your life?

Now,

Let's return to the original issue that you selected at the start of this practice.

As you think about what you've been resisting,

What's happening in your relationship now to this issue after this practice?

Is it the same or different?

Does your body feel any shift?

You may find that there is less resistance or perhaps the task at hand doesn't feel so overwhelming.

You may notice the sensation or image of your resistance has changed.

Or it may feel just the same as when you started this practice.

Most importantly,

Is your relationship to your resistance different in any way?

Tracking the sensations of our resistance without judgment can reduce our internal struggle and criticism of ourselves.

And this is a very good shift.

As we close this practice for today,

Welcome resistance whenever it shows up in your day-to-day life.

Take a few minutes to explore the wisdom and protection it may be offering you.

It may have a lot to share with you.

Thanks for practicing with me today.

Reviews

Oh Bhanu!! Whata pleasure!!! 🙏🪷✨️ Thank you always!!

Thank you for sharing this meditation practice, Bhanu.🙏 Much appreciated.

A wonderful way to get acquainted with my resistance. Thanks Bhanu!

Thank you Bhanu 🙏🏻. For me the feeling of resistance was connected to many deeper internal parts, so slowing down the breath and listening to my body was key. I really like the idea of asking the resistance and parts questions about what it’s asking for or trying to tell me. 🙏🏻

Dear Bhanu, I like everything you do! Everything resonates with me! Thank you! You are my favorite teacher now;)

This gave me so much relief after a hard day with a lot of resistance. It made me go from ”what is wrong with me” to ”of course this is hard and of course I try to protect my self”.

Resistance as wisdom… food for thought! This really resonated with me. Thank you

Thank you sharing a new way for me to tackle my procrastination 🌟🌼🌟

Very gentle voice and just the practice that I need right now. No forcing, just learning to listen and be with it. I frequently wake up feeling bad, and then beat myself up for that instead of accepting with inquiries. Thank you for this practice.

Thank you for teaching this most important insight.

This was so helpful! I’ll be using it regularly. Thank you!

Thank you for this meditation. Fits for me exactly. Wise and gentle.

Very useful, it will require more than one listening...

Excellent, like all Bhanu’s meditations. Thank you 🙏🏻

A really useful practice, thank you. I found out new information about why I am resisting something, and have worked out a way to adjust my goal so I am more likely to achieve it. Will do this again. Thank you

That helped me connect with self compassion. The resistance is still there but it is smaller and I'm not resisting it.

That was so good! I felt bad for resisting doing something that always makes me feel better and now I understand why! So helpful.

Really enjoyed this practice, particularly the exploration of resistance in the body. It helped me gain a new perspective on resistance I've been experiencing. Thank you 🙏🏽

Wonderful meditation! It changed my perspective ofv

i like the questions you shared to ask my resistance. saving to listen to whenever my resistance pops up 💛👌💛