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We’re taught to push past resistance, to fight it, force through, or retreat. The world tells us that success lies in effort, that progress comes from willpower, and that anything standing in our way must be broken down or conquered. When we meet resistance, the impulse is to dominate it, bulldoze through it, or avoid it entirely. But resistance is not always something to defeat. Sometimes, it is something to understand.
When we encounter resistance in our spiritual practice, relationships, creative work, or within ourselves, we assume something has gone wrong. We see it as a block, an obstacle, or a sign of failure. A lack of inspiration must mean we are not creative enough. A difficult phase in our relationship must mean something is broken. A plateau in our spiritual practice must mean we are doing it wrong. But what if these moments are not signs of failure? What if they are invitations into a deeper way of being?
What if resistance is sacred?
What if, instead of battling it, we leaned in, listened, and let it reveal what we’ve been avoiding?
What if resistance is not a wall but a threshold?
What if it is not holding us back, but calling us into a new relationship with our practice, our purpose, and ourselves?
Resistance Is Not Failure. It’s Spanda in Motion
Resistance is Spanda, the divine movement of consciousness, negotiating between fear and expansion, hesitation and flow, stillness and emergence. It is not stagnation but the friction that comes before growth.
Spanda is often described as the pulsation of life itself, the living breath of consciousness. It is the rhythm of expansion and contraction, opening and closing, movement and pause. Everything in nature moves with this rhythm. The tides rise and fall. The breath inhales and exhales. The seasons turn, alternating between growth and stillness.
Resistance is not the absence of motion but motion held in tension. It is the moment before a great shift, the stillness before a storm, the inhale before the exhale.
A muscle trembling before strength emerges. A river pressing against its banks before it floods forward.A seed straining against the earth before it breaks into the light.
Sometimes we resist because we are not yet ready to move. Sometimes we resist because we are afraid of what movement will bring. And sometimes, resistance is an initiation—one that calls for deep presence, not force.
When we meet resistance, we are touching the very edge of our comfort, standing in the space between what is known and what is waiting to be revealed. The discomfort is not a punishment or a problem—it is a signal that something real is taking place. The friction is part of the unfolding.
We resist not because we are stuck, but because something deeper is preparing to emerge.
Resistance as Power: The Outer and Inner Struggle
Not all resistance is meant to be surrendered to. Some resistance is necessary, vital, and urgent. Injustice demands resistance. The status quo often demands resistance. Entire movements are built on the refusal to accept oppression, inequality, and harm. This form of resistance is not just personal but collective—a force that refuses to comply, that challenges, that fights for something better.
But even within social resistance, there is an inner process at work. Sustainable activism, like sustainable personal transformation, requires both movement and pause, both pushing forward and deep listening. Without rest, resistance burns out. Without reflection, action loses direction. The inhale is just as important as the exhale.
So the question is not whether to resist but how to resist wisely. How do we move from a place of clarity rather than reactivity? How do we honour both the fire of change and the stillness that fuels it? How do we know when resistance is necessary and when surrender holds the greater wisdom?
Why We Fear Resistance
Resistance is not just an obstacle. It is a mirror. It shows us where we are holding back, where we feel uncertain, where we are still clinging to safety.
We fear resistance because it exposes our edges—the parts of us that feel fragile, untested, or unknown. It forces us to confront what we have avoided and challenges the narratives we have created about who we are.
The fear of failure. If I keep moving, what if I mess it up? What if I am not good enough? What if I give my all and still fall short?
The fear of being seen. If I take this step, what if others judge me? What if my voice shakes? What if I step into my power and it changes how people perceive me?
The fear of losing what we thought we wanted. If I surrender to this process, what if it leads me somewhere I didn’t expect? What if I outgrow my old desires? What if I change?
This is why resistance feels so overwhelming. It is not just about the external challenge but the internal reckoning.
This is where most people stop. Not because they lack the ability to move forward, but because they resist the discomfort that always comes before transformation. The instinct is to turn back toward the familiar, to retreat into what is known. But safety is not the same as growth.
The paradox of resistance is that what we push against the most is often where our greatest wisdom lies.
So how do we meet resistance without running from it?
How to Romance Resistance
🔥 Step 1: Stop Fighting It. Instead of trying to force your way through, pause. Let yourself feel the friction, the pushback, and the discomfort without needing to change it.
🔥 Step 2: Get Curious.If this resistance had a voice, what would it say?If it had wisdom, what would it teach?If it had a rhythm, how would it move?
🔥 Step 3: Make Love to the Tension.Instead of seeing resistance as the enemy, turn toward it.Move with it, not against it. Let your breath soften the edges.Invite it into your body. Dance with it, write from it, create with it.
🔥 Step 4: Let Spanda Lead.When resistance is met with presence, it transforms.When force is replaced with reverence, movement happens naturally.Dharma does not respond to aggression. It responds to deep listening.
What If Resistance Is an Invitation?
What if hesitation is the cocoon before the wings? What if, instead of pushing through, you surrendered to the wisdom within the pause? What if you let resistance shape you into the one who is truly ready?
🔥 Resistance is not a block. It is a threshold. Lean in. Listen. Something is waiting to be revealed.
Final Thoughts on Resistance in All Forms
Whether we are resisting personal transformation or resisting oppression, resistance is not just about force. It is about wisdom. The most powerful movements, both inner and outer, are the ones that know when to push and when to pause, when to act and when to reflect.
The greatest change does not come from mindless struggle but from deep presence.
The work is to listen. To move with intention. To know that even as we resist, there is something sacred unfolding beneath the surface.
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