Resistance is the refusal to accept something as it is. It doesn’t matter what that something is- the circumstances of your life are actually irrelevant. Any interruption to your peace is worth examining.

I am currently resisting several areas of my life;

  1. New plates on my vehicle (9 months expired)
  2. Raising my company pricing 
  3. Yoga and exercise 

Circumstances like these are like mental rock faces that must be climbed. Resistance is like adding emotional bricks to your backpack. Life is full of mountains; why add weight to a steep grade and gravity? If you climb the mountain with a constant fear of falling, the task will be quite difficult. An example;

  1. Getting new plates on my vehicle is a waste of money because I hardly ever drive anywhere. Plus, the DMV is an awful way to spend my day, especially when I have so much work to do…

But if you If you climb the mountain with focus and determination, awe and surrender, you may find your circumstances to be the key to your freedom. 

  1. Getting new plates on my vehicle is the best way to spend my day, because it means I can go anywhere, anytime, without fear of consequences. I am willing to invest in myself, because I honor my time and freedom. 

The circumstances in my life and what I make up about the circumstance in my life are two completely different things. The event itself is neutral. The DMV is the DMV. My mind makes up that the DMV is one of the most dreadful experiences known to human life, and I spend a lot of energy resisting it rather than getting it over with. I attach a negative thought to everything I resist, and because I am avoiding, I have to keep telling myself the story so I can continue denying reality. All that resistance builds up and drastically slows my forward momentum. But here’s the thing- just because my mind made up a bunch of circumstances, doesn’t make them true. 

Every single circumstance in your life, is therefore, not actually a circumstance, unless you choose for it to be. 

My grandmother is getting ready to transition from this life. She has cancer in her lungs and her spine and yesterday she said she is going crazy waiting to die. It’s awful. It breaks my heart. 

And none of it is True. 

We choose our circumstances. Death doesn’t have to be awful. Many cultures celebrate this time, the passing of life, as something intrinsically special. The give and take of old and new. The circle of life complete. The release of death and the extension of rebirth. 

Of course, that’s not true either. It’s all perspective. The question is; which perspective supports me? Which allows me to surrender to the ways things are? How can I best accept everything in my life so that I can be in a state of continuous peace? 

If your job is bothering you, change your mind about it. Notice what you are resisting and choose new thoughts about it. The more energy spent on creating positive circumstances, the more positive encounters you are likely to have. You might even realize that the things you were resisting were crucial to you getting what you actually wanted. My grandmother gets to rest in her dry bones and her rancher hands. She gets to be pain and worry free. She gets to surrender all of her resistance to the unknown. 

And she gets to teach me to do the same. 

Co-Writing Credit: Cody Joeseph Jezwinski

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