Creating When You Feel Resistance

I’ve noticed that most of us let ourselves be driven by our resistance to something difficult, frightening, or uncertain.

We take on a hard task—creating something, for example—and then we feel some kind of resistance or we feel overwhelmed. It’s often simply fear of the unknown.

It’s quite normal and understandable to let this fear drive our actions—or inactions.

But what would it be like if we didn’t let this resistance drive us? What if we could stay in the uncertainty and feel the resistance but still transform it into creativity and action?

Let’s take a look at the two parts of that.

Stay in the Resistance

The first step is to set aside some space for whatever you’re resisting. Warning: This step can be a doozy. We somehow always find ourselves too busy to do the thing we’re resisting. Funny how that works.

So if you notice you never have time for it—make the time. Set aside 15 minutes in the morning, or maybe 30. Put it on the calendar and commit yourself fully.

Let’s say you do that and now you find yourself in that block of time. But then, all of a sudden, everything else seems urgent. Your emails are suddenly irresistible or your kitchen needs immediate cleaning. Stay put. Don’t abandon the task. Your resistance wants to drive you away, but you’re going to try something different. You will take leadership of your life rather than letting life happen to you.

Sit still for a minute and feel the resistance. Don’t dwell on the thoughts about how you can’t do this or how you should do it later. Instead, focus on the sensation of resistance in your body, the itch of overwhelm that reveals fear and uncertainty. Recognize that it’s simply a sensation, an experience.

Be with it. If it feels like more than you can handle, stay a few moments longer. This is training. You are strengthening your tolerance to be able to stay mindfully present with the feeling of resistance.

With practice, you learn that it isn’t a big deal. You can be with it, with gentleness and even love instead of judgment.

Transform It Into Creativity and Action

Once you’ve done that, there’s another incredible way to work with this energy in your body. It feels like something you don’t want, but it’s actually energy.

This is the energy of life, of being human, of fear and meaning, learning and creating. Of discovering something new and connecting.

This energy isn’t something to expel, but to use in your creation. What can you create in this place of resistance with this unsettled energy? Can you let yourself stay curious and explore? What might emerge if you stay open here?

From this place, your deepest creation will be uncovered. You begin to realize that you aren’t the inventor of your creations but the discoverer of them. You begin to get excited about what might be unearthed in the unknown.

This is magic. What are you waiting for?