This phrase is something I’ve been pondering recently as, although it has been around forever, I’ve never taken time to really thinking about what it means and where it came from.
So when I say resistance – it really is futile. When I say futile, I mean completely pointless, waste of time, and actually ridiculous.
Once this phrase was on my radar, I started to discover that some clients were resisting the things that they said they most wanted which I initially thought was crazy. And then, as if by magic, I started to do it too! Resist the things I most wanted, and come up with perfectly well thought out explanations as to why I was doing the resisting.
So I researched. And I found that Therapists talk about resistance quite a lot. But, this definitely wasn’t the kind of resistance I was thinking about – in fact much of it seemed to be helping therapists to explain why people weren’t turning up for sessions which wasn’t my point at all.
My question was, why in everyday life, do we say, “I want this thing, I want it so bad, I can’t stop thinking about it, I just know if I can do this thing / have this thing / create this thing – my life will be the best it’s ever been AND some.” And THEN we come up with all these excuses and reasons as to why we can’t do it / get it / have it. And then, subsequently give up.
The ‘thing’ they so desire becomes something that is not available to them. And the only person telling them that they can’t have it is themselves.
We are the ones who say to ourselves, “I can’t,” or we build walls around the things and forget to create a door, or put the thing on an island where it cannot be reached except in a golden helicopter.
Resistance belongs to us; we seem to love it. But we also hate it – it gets in our way and, sadly, we let it. Resistance stops us from getting the things we really want for our lives.
Resistance could be thought of as your inner rebel. My rebel was important to me once, as a child and teenager, but as an adult this importance is lesser. Rebel really just gets in my way. So this got me wondering whether rebel can ever really be helpful in adulthood? I mean, how can it when it just makes us resist the things that we really want? It brings us to the next question – do we really want the ‘thing’ that we say we do?
The desired outcome has to be stronger than the resistance itself. So do we need to understand the resistance in order to clear it and break on through to the things that we really want? Yes and no. It depends on the strength of desire for the outcome.
If anyone wants to explore resistance with me in hypnotherapy, I’d be delighted to support you. Understanding is power and the clarity and understanding gained in hypnosis, and through conversations with the subconscious, even more so.
Why not book a free, no obligation Possibility Session with me here
