For a Blissful Life — Release Your Resistance From the Body, Mind, and Energy
The root cause of suffering is your resistance to life situations.
A few months back, my spiritual master went for root canal treatment. His tooth was aching for many weeks. It was already too late, and pain became severe.
It took 3–4 sittings for the treatment to get completed. I called him after the treatment was over.
He said, “Doctor was very patient. Due to long-standing infection, the pain was severe. While treatment, he put many medications. But the pain didn’t subside. While undergoing the procedure, the doctor gave me some rest in between for pain to ease. I had to accept that pain was there. There was no resistance. After all, life is such only. The more you resist, the more pain is there. I watched my pain and let the treatment go on.”
His enlightening words touched my heart. How true!
Although I was living a life full of acceptance, despite that, resistance would come. After the talk, I became more aware of my sadness, anger, or anxiety. They all represented my resistance. However, his words diluted my remaining resistance to life's situations.
Your Resistance Hides in Plain Sight
Miseries come as sadness, anger, or fear. Your unfulfilled expectations of self, others, or life make you suffer.
We never truly learned how to live. Nobody is glad about the way they are. Everybody is always striving for something more, something a little extra. This nonstop expectation from life is like a hamster on a wheel. We think we are achieving something. Still, happiness seems far.
But you don’t have to follow the dissatisfied masses. Awareness helps to see things beyond.
Everybody wants a happy life. Unfortunately, seeking happiness in the ever-changing outer world is bound to remain unfulfilled. You may buy a bit more comfort, but happiness still eludes. Life will never take a course according to you. Buddha’s four noble truths say it beautifully:
- Life is suffering
- Life causes suffering.
- Life ends suffering.
- Life is the reason for you to be free from suffering.
Life causes suffering when you cling to it with your expectations and desires. They cause resistance. When you recognize life with total acceptance, you experience its bliss.
Pain in life is inevitable but suffering is not. Pain is what the world does to you, suffering is what you do to yourself [by the way you think about the ‘pain’ you receive]. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. [You can always be grateful that the pain is not worse in quality, quantity, frequency, duration, etc] — Gautama Buddha
Identify Your Resistance
Once I asked my mentor. “How to identify my resistance towards life?”
He said, “Look for your whys?”
Why it has to be me? Why is my life not the way I want? Instead of being peaceful, why am I sad/ frustrated/ angry/ fearful?
Your acceptance of a smaller section of life is not enough. Instead, accept life as it comes. With no past to regret or no future to worry about, life is here in this ‘Now.’
Look for these signs to pinpoint your resistance towards any specific life event/person:
- Be aware of physical signs—the inner tension. For example, it might feel like a knot in the heart or some tightness in the stomach/neck/ shoulder.
- Be conscious of the heavy emotions. It can be anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, or anything. They represent your non-acceptance.
- Look for your why (s).
“Whatever you resist not only persists but grows.” — Eckhart Tolle
#1. Release Resistance From The Body
Include Yoga in your schedule to release unwanted energy from your system.
Sage Patanjali introduced Yoga to the daily lives of ordinary people. It helps to get rid of the dense energy you accumulate because of outside interactions. In yoga, stagnant energy wipes away. It gives way to the new vital energy.
Yoga is not just asanas/postures. But it is the combination of breath flow with the movement of the body. It syncs the body with the surrounding nature.
The healthy body is an integral part of living freely. Emotional pain causes energy knots. If these knots remain for a long time, they cause diseases. Yoga dilutes these energy knots smoothly.
Yoga maintains a balance between body and energy. Practice yoga to release the denser part of resistance from your body.
“Yoga is not a work-out, it is a work-in. And this is the point of spiritual practice; to make us teachable; to open up our hearts and focus our awareness so that we can know what we already know and be who we already are.” — Rolf Gates
#2. Release Resistance From The Mind
Don’t hide your emotions from you.
When my partner was with someone else, I didn’t want to see my jealousy, possession, or comparison. On the surface, I’d be okay. But somewhere deep down, they were all bubbling up. My partner knew it. But I was oblivious.
It was not until the situations turned upside down; they forced me to witness my hidden feelings. Ew! They were ugly and heavy.
For days, I wept and wallowed in pain. But when I released them, I became free. A light-hearted living happened.
Nobody wants pain. Everybody is working for their happiness and freedom. But, in the race after happiness, we bury these emotions inside us. Till we acknowledge and release them, we are bound to be their prisoners.
Release your emotions regularly to clear your resistance. Do catharsis to make the stickier emotions flow. The more you let them pass, the more acceptance you have towards life and people.
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” — Dalai Lama XIV
#3. Release Resistance From Your Energy
When you move on from the physical and emotional aspects, you become sensitive to more subtle facets. You can see your ‘whys’ more easily.
When resistance arises, be aware of the ‘why.’
Like a movie, watch the roller coaster ride of these whys. Sometimes it may seem hilarious. Other times you may judge. So leave all the arguments and opinions.
Stick with your why's. Then, gradually move towards the source of this why. For example, my source of jealousy, possession, and comparison was my fear.
Look at the source of your why(s). This source is always an illusionary story we have fed ourselves. Be conscious of those narratives. They are not the reality of life. They are mostly your expectations and underlying fear.
Acknowledge their presence. Accept and release them as well. Emotions are deep. You start with the denser one and move towards subtler ones. Be aware of why(s). Practice detached witnessing regularly.
I couldn’t agree more with Osho. Osho has said it magnificently,
Watch anything in the mind, and you are cut off. Watching is a sword. If a thought is moving in your mind, just watch it — and suddenly you will see the thought is there, you are here, and there is no bridge left. Don’t watch, and you become identified with the thought, you become it; watch, and you are not it. Mind possesses you because you have forgotten how to watch. Learn it.
Takeaways
When you become free from unstable emotions, you relax in peace. A light-hearted living happens.
Acceptance towards life opens the bliss gates. It has always been there. But the curtain of the unfulfilled desires stops you from seeing and experiencing them.
Resistance is the lock, and acceptance is the key to bliss. They both are always with you. It is up to you when you want to open the gates and enter this ever-present joyful realm.
“The moment that judgment stops through acceptance of what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.” — Eckhart Tolle
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Thank you for reading. Thank you, Darshak Rana, for the prompt — An advice/idea that changed your life. If you enjoyed this, you might also like this:
