Replacing Resistance with Faith

The degree of correlation of people’s spirit with the eccentricities of weather in this part of the world is amusingly unbelievable. The unpredictability of weather here is a far cry from the distinctness in seasons that the naïve-me always presumed. But what is more interesting is to observe the same essence of weather reflected in everyone’s mood – dark clouds or snow brings forth a frown while sunshine is a reason for rejoice. But isn’t the weather the last thing that is in one’s control- since an individual with average intellect would answer in the affirmative – resisting this phenomenon that is totally beyond our control is surely an act in vain.

This though is the tip of the iceberg. Resistance is such an instant reaction that it masquerades almost as being natural. The slightest trigger that is away from the ordinary sprouts that overwhelming feeling of resistance within us- change, discomfort, exerting extra effort and even something as simple as a divergent point of view springs up that impenetrable guard – possibly making us lose hugely in return. How many times do we miss those valuable nuggets of learning simply because we question every move that is different!

There is a whole branch of work-out technique called ‘Functional Training’ that simulates our everyday moves and hence attempts to strengthen those muscles that are used in regular activities. As a result of this the design of the exercises is very different from the ordinary and in certain cases very challenging – the amount of times an instructor in any of my Functional Training classes asks students to not question but stick with the exercise is ridiculously many – another indication of the instant, reflective resistance to extraordinary. And paradoxically what your body resists is what is required to be worked on the most making the act of resistance very counterproductive.

I still remember those perpetually disapproving faces in any presentation during the course of my work – the frowns that generated subconsciously because the point of view being described was not similar to what they held – if these people would calculate the number of ideas they snubbed or missed understanding it would surely run into double digits – enumerating the magnitude of the loss in learning that resistance brings with it.

I experienced this valuable lesson experientially on a yoga mat – for every new posture taught by my instructor – my brows frowned, muscles tightened, toes gripped, lips pursed and breath worked double time – the result needless to say was a disaster – leaving me feeling drained out vs. rejuvenated. But as my faith in the teacher grew I accepted her cues and without realizing just eased into the posture – as if I was meant to be there. The more I replaced resistance with faith the more I could reach my true self. The flow of energy left me dizzy with joy!

Taking this lesson off the mat – I attempted to substitute faith for resistance in every act by proactively checking myself whenever I complained and how some of my American friends would advise ‘just hang in there’ – to my blissful surprise all did appear in a different hue.

Steven Covey in his book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” talks of a ‘Circle of Concern’ and a ‘Circle of Influence’. Circle of concern includes all issues that we are concerned about – this needless to say is huge and ever expanding. But there is a smaller circle of influence circumscribing issues that we can alter – understanding the boundaries of both circles and letting go of the issues beyond our circle of influence can serve as a great mantra for evaporating most of the resistance we experience.

There is a beautiful example one of my teachers enumerates – according to her, the tougher a pose is in yoga the more it serves to focus and calm our mind – because the mind has no room to wander anywhere else but in the grave effort that we are exerting to hold that asana – this is a blessing in disguise. In fact ‘balancing poses’ in yoga are meant to calm your mind and breath and focus on nothing else but now. Couldn’t it then be true of other situations of mental or emotional discomfort also – if we accept them to be a blessing in disguise we could probably stop the sapping of energy that resistance initiates.

So next time we frown we need to check ourselves – scan our bodies for signs of mental resistance manifesting as physical tension – and replace it with the faith that the discomfort is ephemeral but the learning borne out of it is permanent – and as my spin class instructor says ‘welcome the beautiful sweat dripping down our face so that we can bike longer, run longer and live larger!’