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Owais' Places

Resistance

“What you resist persists.”

  • Carl Jung

I really love the first season of Shrinking. Jimmy tells that to Sean. So I googled it and started reading an article from San Diego Psychotherapy1.

It comes from ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy).

…feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.

Pema Chodron (1997)

The thoughts persist because our bodies are trying to tell us that something is wrong or important, and that something has to change. Negative thoughts and feelings will continue until we deal with them.

We behave in familiar, easy accessible patterns even if the outcomes aren’t great. Forging new neural pathways isn’t easy.

  1. Stop struggling
  2. Know that thoughts aren’t the problem. Thoughts and emotions are there for a reason.
  3. The first thought is “monkey”/“lizard” brain. How we respond, i.e. the subsequent thoughts, are in our control.
  4. Some choices are hard.
  5. The body doesn’t lie.

Footnotes

Section titled “Footnotes”

  1. San Diego Psychotherapy. “What We Resist Persists.” June 11, 2018. https://www.shoshanashea.com/blog/2018/6/11/what-we-resist-persists. ↩