Overcoming resistance can pose a challenging and daunting task. We may feel discouraged, frustrated, and overwhelmed when we encounter resistance. We can overcome resistance and achieve our goals by changing how we move. Tweaking our movement flow to ease, and free-flow will enable us to tweak our mindset.
Hitting a wall
Whilst writing parts of my PhD thesis, I hit a wall. I felt like I was stuck and couldn’t make any progress. Every sentence I wrote felt like a struggle, and I procrastinated and avoided the work altogether. I knew I needed to find a way to overcome this resistance, but I didn’t know how.
Observing the natural world
I sat by the window one day, watching a seagull fly against the wind. I often find answers to life’s struggles within nature; on this occasion, the wind represented the resistance I faced in my work. The seagull represented a source of inspiration. I observed how the bird’s movements were those of ease and flow, despite the wind pushing against it. The bird’s wings adjusted to the wind’s force, and with every movement, the seagull grew stronger and moved closer to its intended destination.
Watching the seagull inspired me to adopt a similar approach to my movement. Instead of fighting against the resistance, I adjusted my writing approach and movements, aiming for ease and flow in my typing. I acknowledged the challenges I faced, but I focused on my progress. I aimed not to stop writing when unsure how to phrase things but to continuously write and find free-flow with the physicality of typing.
Adjusting the movement and mindset = change
My mindset was adjusted by tweaking my writing movements to be free-flowing rather than stop-and-go. I started to see resistance as a natural part of the creative process and that these moments were opportunities to learn and grow. I broke through my writer’s block and made progress in my work. With every sentence I wrote, I grew more confident and motivated. I also started appreciating the journey and challenges rather than focusing on the end result.
Overcoming resistance is not easy, but it is possible. By finding inspiration and metaphors within nature and learning from these, adjusting the way we approach things, we can gently tweak our mindset, face challenges and achieve our goals. Like the seagull, we can learn to focus on ease, flow and continuous movement to overcome resistance. In doing so, we become stronger and more resilient and arrive somewhere — possibly at our intended destination.
If you would like to experiment with using metaphors from nature to generate movement and explore the flow state, please join my next Ground Yourself Workshop and click here to sign up.