Fear Not

Resistance can be used to your advantage in many different ways if you recognize, and acknowledge your thoughts and feelings when there are things in your life that you want to change.

Our brains want to avoid pain, so we seek pleasure! Change can be painful at first, so we resist, even when we know it can ultimately lead to a greater strength and understanding in the long run.

I have spent much of my life resisting feelings and emotions, thinking that somehow if I pushed them away, they would disappear. This is not the best kind of resistance and the fact is, the old saying is true, “what we resist, persists”. Every time I have resisted or pushed away what I didn’t want to face, it continued to show up and it persisted to invade my thoughts time and time again.

Before long, weeks, months and even years can pass, yet it seems the same things keep showing up. The same thoughts weighing on me, with me responding the same way, resisting what the deepest part of me knew that I needed to change.

Resisting things, you can’t get out of your conscience is something to pay attention to. Resistance creates more pain for us… self-inflicted pain. It can serve a greater purpose though. Psychologically, we oppose change, because it’s easier to resist, than to actually change, however when we finally see this, and acknowledge it, we can find the strength to choose differently.

Resistance can be, and so often is, the catalyst for change.

For years I wanted to stop drinking. It was not serving me anymore, and although I wanted to change, I pushed those thoughts anywhere else in my head just so I didn’t have to deal with what my soul was craving. The more I resisted the feelings that I had, the more they persisted, until I could no longer ignore them.

The day I changed what I resisted is the day my life changed.

When I got sick and tired of fighting with myself, along with everything I was trying to change, without doing the work (change takes work but no one will do it for you) my views changed. I no longer would push things away, but instead, found a way to surrender to what the core of me wanted, and learned to do hard things.

Change isn’t what is ultimately painful, it’s the resistance to change that is.

One day three years ago, I woke up and realized I wanted to resist the urge to drink, and from that day forward I have never looked back.

Now, it wasn’t easy, and many days were harder than I ever anticipated, but I stopped fighting myself. Once I did that, not only did my drinking stop, but so many other positive things happened.

Instead of resisting my thoughts and feelings, I resisted the urge to drink, to numb my sadness and grief with alcohol. I was finally open to change what I was refusing to look at for so long. I began resisting the things that were making me hate myself. This is where resisting can also be one of the greatest things that you can do for yourself and those you love, because others will benefit from your growth as well.

It might not be alcohol for you, but let me tell you this firsthand experience.

The power that comes with resistance, is compounded every single time you choose to resist something that is not serving you anymore.

Read that again, the truth in that statement is one of the most important things that I have learned in the last three years not picking up a drink. I cannot stress enough that it goes way beyond drinking.

• Reacting – Resist reacting! So much to say about this, but just know that you don’t have to react how you always have. You will feel your power grow every time you choose not to react on emotion. Pause, breathe, reframe your thoughts.
• Scrolling – We could all try to resist this once in a while.
• Wasting time – Resist doing nothing (often that is) Get up early, read a book, write a letter, call a friend, meditate, volunteer, just resist wasting the precious time you have here with those you love.
• Drinking (if this is for you) – resist the urge, you are strong and just for today you can choose not to.
• Negativity – Resist it all! Don’t get sucked in
• Fear – Turn fear into fuel for change and growth.
  

Resisting can be amazing when it’s used to grow. Today I can say that I am grateful for those years of resisting what my mind was telling me, because now I know I never want to go back to where I was in my head back then. I have gotten mentally tougher knowing that it IS POSSIBLE to resist the things that you thought you would never be able to.

The most important thing that everyone should practice resisting, is their own negative or limiting beliefs about what you can accomplish, because what you believe is generally what you will receive.

~ by Rebecca on January 8, 2024.

Posted in Diagnosed