resistance

Hans Hoffman, Laburnum, 1954,

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Note: I’m exploring the idea of doing an advice column. Please feel free to ask me questions here!

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Hi friends. I’ve come to see my Substack posts as a form of weekly meditation. I’ve been unusually anxious this week, so resistance is our topic of the day: how it manifests, why it feels so bad, and how to break through it.

For me, resistance usually appears when I’m facing an experience that my subconscious assumes will be unpleasant. A small instance of resistance is exercise: last week, when our friends were visiting, I knew I wanted to go skiing but I also dreaded it. I dreaded it all the way until we did our first run, and then suddenly I remembered wait, I love this. I also experience resistance with lots of small tasks: scheduling something, sending an email, paying a bill. I’ve gotten pretty good at dealing with micro-resistances: I’ve established enough of a habit over the few years to keep me exercising regularly, and I’ve learned that not sending the email is worse than sending the email. Capital R-Resistance is another story, however.