Is It True That What You Resist, Persists?

Articles

We've heard this before: “What you resist, persists.” The most common context is the Law of Attraction and manifestation teachings.

Yet one person wrote that it just doesn't seem to make sense in relation to people who have abject poverty. Especially those born into it.

The thought pattern goes something like this:

“If a person is resisting their poverty, all they have to do is stop resisting it. Then they can have all the money in the world.”

Now if you were to tell this to a person in abject poverty, they'd probably think you are crazy. They might become angry or sad. It's highly unlikely they would appreciate this kind of condescending view of their life experience.

The reason is that while it's possible that thought pattern might be true, it's also possible it might not be. Reality might not support a person in this way.

Manifestation is not just about our own wants and desires. It's about aligning our wants and desires with the intentions of the Divine. When this alignment is in place, we see the world support us in living full, authentic, loving Truth-filled lives.

The only things that we actually resist are our ideas about reality. We expect reality to be a certain way. When it's not, we often face inner resistance resistance because we want things how they were. We want things to be how we expect them to be.

This difference between how reality is -and how we want or expect it to be- is what causes us pain and suffering. The reason is simple: We are rejecting our immediate experience.

This experience of rejection and pain is what we are resisting. We are saying, “I don't want this. I want it to go away. Make it go away.” This resistance forces the pain to persist because each time we feel the pain, we resist it. The resistance causes more pain to persist, which we then try to resist. It's a downhill spiral that creates more pain.

The only way to stop the pain is to finally stop resisting it. To acknowledge: “Pain is in my experience right now. I may not like it. It may not feel good. And, I accept that it is here right now.”

When this kind of attitude is combined with Presence, some of the energy of the pain to dissipate. Over time, less rejection means less pain. Eventually, the pain does go away when we stop resisting it.

Instead of being a downward spiral, we create an upward spiral towards higher living.

This is a secret to overcoming heartbreak and grief. Too many people are scared that if they actually feel and experience their pain, they will be overwhelmed by it. This causes them to shut off those emotions.

On the flip side, some people believe that if they keep feeling their pain constantly, eventually it will go away. This is also not necessarily true.

It depends if they are merely reliving the past and staying stuck. This is is a form of resistance to the Present moment, and therefore perpetuates their pain and stuckness…

Or if they are experiencing the pain from a place of acceptance. For example: “This happened to me in the past. Right now I am experiencing pain from it. And this is okay. I will be with it” and they practice a Presence-based form of mindfulness.

The pain persists because we resist it -either by pushing it away and trying not to feel it- or by feeling it and saying “It shouldn't be this way.”

The only way to escape BOTH of these cycles it to fully accept the pain, as it is, without judging it and without expecting it to be any way other than what is showing up right now, in this Present moment.