Imagine you wanted to drive from Chattanooga, TN to the beaches of Destin, FL (or insert your hometown and favorite beach ;). You want to feel the sand under your feet, the warm sun, and swimming in the ocean. Maybe you even want a nice cold refreshing beverage.
You have been working extremely hard lately and a nice relaxing trip is just what you need. You can hardly contain your excitement!
After loading up your car, you put the address into your GPS. Quickly you realize there are a lot of steps to get to Destin. You’re going to have to make several turns along the way and drive on the interstate for several hundred miles. Not to mention, it’s going to take you a little more than 6 hours to get there!
Would you think, “Man, this seems like a lot of work“? Or, would you drive halfway and then decide there are too many turns and turn back around?
No! We know that any road trip is going to be filled with turns, merges, and potential traffic jams. We’re going to experience red lights, stop signs, and maybe even a detour or two. We expect that. But that does not mean the trip isn’t worth taking.
It would be silly to assume that we could just get in our car, drive 400 miles in a straight line and end up at our destination in 20 minutes. The same is true for any goal, dream, or aspiration we have in life.
Resistance
When we have an intention in mind for a future version of ourselves, we set that as a future destination and plug that destination into our internal GPS. Once, we know where we want to go, we are then sent the directions on how to get there.
Those directions may have a lot of steps or we may be on a certain path for a lot longer than we thought. We may even get placed on an alternate route that takes a little longer to get there than we had hoped. This is what leads to resistance.
Resistance is felt when our expectations of how things should be are different than how it actually is.
Our path may be filled with twists, turns, u-turns, merges, stops, yields, wrong ways, do not enter, and so on. But, just because the path to get there isn’t straight doesn’t mean it is not worth taking. The resistance is the way!
The resistance you feel toward joining the gym is the way to achieving the body and weight you desire.
The resistance you feel about having that difficult conversation is the way to a deeper, healthier relationship.
The resistance you feel toward starting your own business is the way to more freedom and the greater prosperity you desire.
The resistance you feel toward meditating is the way to a calmer, more peaceful mind.
The resistance you feel toward putting yourself out there and getting uncomfortable is the way to grow your business.
Of course, it would be nice to skip all of that and just end up at our destination but just like driving, there are steps we must follow. This is how we live the life we have always wanted to live. The good news is, we are always being guided.
Your Internal Guide
We can always give up on going to the beach because of the resistance we feel but that does not fulfill our desire of feeling the sand under our feet, the warm sun on our skin, and the nice ocean breeze.
We are all internally guided by the highest expression of who we are. This is the version of us that knows what we desire and is always living and experiencing life the way we have always dreamed of.
Not only does our highest expression know where we want to go but it knows the way to get there. When we ignore this, there is a lack of ease between who are being and who we are meant to be. The more disconnected we become from our highest self, the more lack of ease (dis-ease) we experience in life.
This may feel like nagging, chronic pain, anxiety, emotional unrest, digestive issues, sleep disorders, and more. Our inner guide is trying to get our attention and constantly shouting “Rerouting! Rerouting!” to get our attention.
If we continue to resist our inner calling, what we resist, persist. Meaning these gentle signals may manifest as illness, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease, neurological disorders, depression, or even cancer.
We have gotten so far off course that we are not even heading in the right direction anymore. The more we give in to the resistance we feel, the more we stay exactly where we are experiencing the same thing day after day.
Rather than approaching any resistance as a “roadblock”, what if we saw it as the guiding path toward our Optimal Life. Our inner guide knows the way to our vision and is asking us to let go of our expectations. When we let go of our expectations, we release our bond to the resistance we feel. We then become more connected to our highest expression and begin to feel more ease and flow.
Most importantly, in this place, we begin to enjoy the ride. We can take in every moment from a state of peace, presence, and gratitude because we trust that we are being guided to our destination. No longer do we feel anxious, stressed, frustrated, or discouraged. We approach every obstacle now with enthusiasm knowing that this is the next step in our journey.
Unless there was an imminent danger to our physical health and well-being, we must trust that our internal guidance system is always leading us on the right path. The more we resist these internal calls, the more we delay living our Optimal Life as the highest version of who we are!
Steps to Follow
- Identify where you want to go. What do you want your life to look like 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years from now? Write it out in detail and focus on how each detail will make you FEEL. Take your time with this. The more specific you are the more opportunities you get to create the feeling of achieving and rewire your nervous system.
- Identify areas of your life where you feel resistance. What is something you know you could do to help reach your destination but have not, or are not doing? Why haven’t you done them? What obstacle or challenge (externally or internally) do you perceive as being in the way?
- What is one action step you can take to overcome your obstacles? Once you identify where and what the resistance is, you now know the path you must follow. Creating actionable steps serves as the directions we must take toward our destination.
- Enjoy the ride!