I wrote about your hashtags a couple of weeks ago.  Hashtags are your mental shortcuts, giving your brain quick access to your ecosystem of beliefs.

I was fascinated by one of my client’s hashtags, #TheResistanceIsReal. I realized that resistance was being mighty powerful. Reigning supreme even.

I thought about how we often try resisting resistance. Which, of course, just gives us more resistance. And struggle. Ugh. I don’t think that white-knuckling or powering through are the only ways to do something. So that’s a no to resisting resistance.

I thought about just acknowledging or allowing the resistance, because sometimes that works. Okay, I tried that.  Not quite, because it didn’t pass – it lingered.

So then I landed on this: how is resistance trying to serve me?

Aha! This is helpful. My brain is serving up resistance in order to serve me – protect me, help me, teach me… do something useful.  If I look at resistance as trying to be helpful (even if it’s a bit misguided) then I can process it and move through it.

For example, am I trying to do something new without updating my old beliefs? Am I pushing too hard to make a change, and the effort isn’t really sustainable? Am I trying to do something I don’t really want to do because I haven’t figured out how it’s really going to benefit me? Did I really pick it? Do I need to do some more work to support it?  Have I really faced the impacts? Have I truly decided?

I’m not saying that resistance is a reason to quit! I’m saying resistance can be very helpful in figuring out what else I can do that will support my decision and make me more successful.

I think I can translate the hashtag to #ResistanceIsReallyTryingToTellYouSomething. Okay, that’s not as cute as I thought it was going to be.

Love and light,