Resistance - How to Identify It and Shift It

Yesterday, I took a leap and sent out an email regarding my first online course offering around Preparing for Manifestation. I was buzzing with excitement at the prospect of supporting all these wonderful humans! And then, within an hour of sending everything out, I felt this intense anger/rage/dread and I knew part of it was my own resistance and part of it was not (which when leading anything as an empath - you automatically know that you are going to feel what the people who are joining you are feeling).

In light of this, I thought I would share how resistance manifests in me and how I shift that energy in the hopes that it might support you or give you some insight into how to navigate your own resistance - especially during times of transformation and change. 

For me, resistance often surfaces as anger or rage boiling up inside of me; my temper gets short, the simplest tasks become unbearable. It's super fun. I remember back when I took my Reiki Master Training. I woke up livid for no reason what so ever. I did not want to go and was tempted to stay home, but I showed up anyways. Then the person I was taking the class showed up, and I was annoyed that she was taking the class with me...why couldn't it have been somebody else? Seriously, this is how the whole morning went. About 2 hours in, I finally surrendered to the resistance and everything shifted. 

I have noticed that resistance often goes hand in hand with taking steps towards big shifts and change. It's the last hurdle we need to get past to prove that YES! we do want these changes and shifts.

Sometimes, you just have to wait it out. To trust that if you walk through the anger, the frustration, the anxiety, it will dissipate on its own. And sometimes it does, which is awesome, but sometimes we have to take the bull by the horns, so to speak. 

So yesterday, rather than sit in my home stewing and being grumbly, I asked myself, what would help me shift in this moment? My reply...joy. Followed by ugh...so obvious and yet so annoying. But then I followed up with, what will bring me joy? My reply....sushi at my favorite restaurant. So, I picked up my keys and my purse and went out. Parking was cake. I took a walk before getting in line for their first seating. I asked the man in front of me if he was the end of the line. He said yes. We started chatting about our love of this particular sushi place, followed by how easy parking was, and how hard that was in NYC, that spiraled into discover we both went to the same Film School, and then we spent about 90 minutes chatting about our mutual love of movies - and not just blockbusters - random obscure movies that I hadn't even thought much about in decades. None of that was planned, and yet the entire evening was a beautiful reminder of the gentle magic and serendipity in the world, and by the time I got home, all that resistance had melted away.

So in those moments of massive resistance, ask yourself "Am I resistant because this will bring growth and change?" If you get a yes or an I don't know or a very grumbly snotty No, ask yourself...what do I need right now to shift this resistance? Sometimes the answer is as simple as a walk, a shower, or, in my case yesterday, sushi.