It’s the answer to the question “Why not?”. It’s the voice inside your head that has a story and reason to stop you when your heart and spirit start to lead you into new territory. It’s the absolutely crushing need to clean before you start ____________ (insert inspired creative project here)

With almost seven years of experience as a yoga instructor, I have gotten to know resistance well. I have stared it in the face, sometimes multiple times a day, and guided hundreds of students to do the same. But, I have to say… each time I meet with it, there is still a part of me that wants to break down and cry, run away and hide, and succumb to the “power” of this resistance.

What is this? It is FEAR. We all have it. We are wired to experience fear when we believe we are in danger or our life is threatened. In this sense, it is a beautiful and necessary part of life, and part of human existence. An unhealthy and imbalanced relationship with fear arises when we experience this “life or death” sense of panic over the survival of our ego, our personality, or “life as we know it”.

The sensory somatic experience can be equally powerful, whether the environmental danger that alerted the nervous system is real or imitative. I have felt the same terror of being seen on a bad hair day, as I have of falling from a 100 foot cliff or drowning under a crashing ocean wave. Sometimes fear is an instinctive guide to safety and survival; however, a lot of times, it’s not.

In my experience, resistance doesn’t stop or go away. But, we can learn how to intelligently manage it. We can learn to understand ourselves and how resistance appears in our own minds and our own lives. We can learn to listen to the voice that comes from our heart and intuition, and nourish that voice so it becomes louder and we start to trust it.

We can connect to our own prana, or life force, or creative energy… so that when we encounter resistance we can stay in our creative flow. We can get to know our own resistance, understanding how it shows up, and learn to artfully craft our way around it, to keep our soul thriving and well.

It is possible. And. It is work. It is constant work. It is a constant choice. The choice to see through the false stories that attempt to hold you back, and the choice to be free and joyful instead. It is all up to you, all the time. You are your own inner teacher and your own best friend.