Releasing resistance to what you want is a process that ultimately sets you free. You can’t manifest the things you desire when you are carrying resistance, whether you can recognize it or not.
In order to manifest what you want, there needs to be a clear path of attraction. Anything standing in the way will thwart your results, and also gives you an idea of what needs to be resolved before you can truly manifest.
Ask yourself what “makes you You”, and see how bound to those ideas you are. Chances are, you’ve created beliefs that result in resistance to the very thing you wish to have in your life.
Luckily, there are ways to tap in, acknowledge what’s in the way, and release it.
Create the space for what you want by being present in the body and recognizing the thought/feeling connection. Once you can find and be with the resistance, you can neutralize it and open the possibilities for all that you desire.
Resistance lives in your body
You can’t think your way out of your stuff. You’ve got to go in to get out.
Most of the time we don’t want to be in our body. We numb ourselves with alcohol or drugs or sex or shopping — anything to avoid the pain. We can go to therapy and work though the mind part of it, but if we’re not releasing from the body then we’re still carrying the patterns energetically.
And we can’t release resistance and create space if the energy of the pattern is still living inside us.
Half the time we don’t even realize it’s happening. We don’t take the time to actually feel what we’re feeling and integrate it. When was the last time you allowed your body to deeply feel something? Especially something uncomfortable in the name of healing?
We can’t resolve anything we’re not willing to acknowledge.
Ask yourself why you might not want to feel certain things. When did you start abandoning your feelings? Did you learn not to trust yourself? Does it feel safe to fully feel things in your body?
Use breathwork, somatic bodywork, yoga, walking, jumping, dancing, anything that gets you moving and present in your body. You might have to retrain yourself to feel safe in your body (which is a whole other topic).
If you’re not willing to be here now, in your physical vessel, in the present moment, you’ve already anchored in a pattern of resistance.
Find the thought/feeling connection
There’s a direct connection between thoughts and feelings, and even though we consciously think we want something, our body might say otherwise. This deep, unconscious resistance taunts us under the surface, sneaking in through our everyday behaviors, habits, and routines.
It’s all our own conditioning. The way we’ve trained ourselves to think and respond to our life experience. Most of it is based on what other people think, and false narratives we’ve created about ourselves.
We’ve all experienced it. Someone pisses us off and we immediately get thrown into something like anger, defensiveness, fear, guilt, or whatever we’ve associated with that trigger from the past.
It’s instant. We don’t even think about it. What’s the first thing you do when someone cuts you off in traffic? Where does that reaction come from? What emotion is it attached to?
Perhaps you can even ask yourself where this connection started. How old do you feel? What might have happened around that age that might bring a similar feeling? Find the connection and dissolve it.
These patterns get set into us early on when we aren’t able to filter experiences into fact versus fiction. Scientifically, the brain rewrites our experiences to match our belief and value system. It’s based on how we feel. This is why two people can watch the same movie and have two very different experiences.
Are you someone who holds anger (or shame or fear or guilt)? Is there an experience in your life that you’re still angry or upset about? Are you willing to resolve it? That emotion is the very resistance you are trying to bypass to manifest what you want. (Which is why it’s not working).
And of course, there’s more underneath that first layer. The connections run deep and once you uncover one, you will undoubtedly encounter ten more. And this is exactly where your resistance is buried.
Be present in the experience
Being in the present moment is the scariest place for our ego to be because the present feels completely unknown and therefore unsafe. The old stories come rushing back in and we often talk ourselves out of our great ideas and big plans.
When we aren’t present in the moment, and thinking of something in the past or worrying about something in the future, we completely miss the experience we are having. Looking through a lens of perception that is either based in the past or the future prevents us from living in the right now. We can’t create something new from old stories.
The mind skips over the present and pulls from the past to create a “safe” outcome for the future. It likes predictability. That is where you find the resistance — it’s within the “safety” of the old stories.
Where do you fall back into your old habits and patterns? This is where you are playing safe.
Often we push the present moment out of the way to get to some other desired outcome. We want to get to where we want to be and bypass everything in between. It’s our nature.
But in the present moment there is no resistance, because you are flowing with what’s naturally occurring. There’s no living anywhere other than right now.
Being present means you’re also regulated and are able to look at things from a neutral perspective. Your old wounding isn’t altering your lens or perception. You’re not reacting from your triggers. You’re fully in your body, in the moment, taking in the experience.
From this state, you can easily spot resistance because it feels different. It might feel like tightness, a “gut feeling”, a knowing, anxiety, or other signs your body gives you. Feeling into those sensations and emotions helps to release and dissolve the resistance, giving you space to call in something new.
Allow the essence of the desire to expand
In order to release resistance to what you want, you need to create the capacity to hold it.
Quite often, we think we’re at the point where we can receive our manifestations. However, the nervous system doesn’t feel safe with whatever that next level is (which is why we’re still waiting for the money, the house, the relationship, the job, yadda, yadda, yadda).
When you can sit comfortably with the essence of what you want, you let your body know it’s ok to run a new program.
What is the overall feeling of the outcome you desire? Are you wanting freedom? Safety? Security? Peace? What do you really want underneath it all?
An example is if you’re working on manifesting money. If you grew up with anxiety about money, or if having money didn’t feel safe then, it’s not going to feel safe now unless you’ve retrained your body to believe it is. You’ll continue to play out your old stories until you consciously change them.
To release the resistance, think about the money (or whatever it is) you want. How does that thought feel in your body? Are there any strong sensations? If so, what do they feel like? Where do you feel them? If these sensations are heavy or dense, you’re feeling resistance.
Listen to this guided meditation to help you release resistance
Sit with what you feel and it will start to dissolve. Time is the unknown factor here, but you’d be surprised what can release quickly and how that changes things in your life immediately.
Then, allow yourself to feel into what it would be like to live as the version of you that’s already achieved or manifested what you are wanting. Give yourself full permission to fully dive into that feeling like it’s actually happening right now in the moment.
The brain and the body don’t know the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined. When you put yourself into a state of heightened emotion, you are literaly rewriting the program in the moment by letting the feeling expand.
Rewire the subconscious out of resistance
The subconscious is wired to run a program. If you change the program, you’ll get a different outcome.
If you’re running a program of resistance (perhaps the “I’m not good enough” story?) your life experience will reflect it. Our beliefs are self-fulfilled, as what we believe will be true for us. So, if we believe we can’t do, be, or have something, then our life will reflect that back, no matter how close we get.
And this is where the sweet spot is for changing the story.
Instead of saying “Ugh, I always do that. I’m such an idiot”, replace that with something like “Hey now, that’s an old narrative that’s not based on truth. It’s going to take some time to unlearn. Great job for noticing!”
Even if you don’t believe it at first, you’re still training yourself to have a choice in how you respond. This is the first step in rewiring your subconscious. When you have a choice you’re expanding your lens of perception.
Then, you can start questioning your typical, immediate reactions to things. When you catch yourself saying something unhelpful, change it in the moment. This is helping to create new neural pathways for your brain to follow, therefore writing a new program.
Learn How to Stop Ruminating and Overthinking Now!
Releasing resistance requires awareness of the things you’re saying, thinking, feeling, doing, and believing. It takes a willingness and some practice, but once you get into a new pattern, the rest takes care of itself.
In order to manifest what you desire, you have to be free and clear of resistance. Find it, dissolve it, and let the floodgates open.