North Columbus News

Lately, I have had several conversations, both personally and professionally, around the idea of resistance; how we can find ourselves in this place from time to time, resisting what we are seeing and experiencing. There is nothing earth-shattering here; we all do it. The key is to be aware when this is happening and how we handle that awareness. The reality is that when we push against something, it inevitably gets bigger.

For example, you may have someone in your life that is just not behaving in a way you think they need to be. Come on, you know this has happened, or possibly it is happening in real-time. As you observe their behavior, you find yourself locking into a position—your position—feeling without any shred of a doubt that you are right and they are undoubtedly wrong! Aha! Can you feel the resistance in your body even just reading these words?

When you put yourself into this uncomfortable place of pushing against this person and situation, you will find that you become even more aware of this unwanted behavior. And then, it can even show up with others around you—perhaps friends that are having the same issue or something you read or observe in passing. I cannot give you a logical explanation of how this works; I can merely tell you that this is how resistance affects us and not in any sort of positive way.

Bottom line: whatever you focus your attention on gets bigger—good or bad. Think back to a time when you have a new car and magically begin seeing that car everywhere. I found this to be true when I had my twins; they were suddenly everywhere! It’s the same principle.

The big question is: where do you want to place your attention?