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This week, I’m debugging my magickal communication so I can learn detailed, reliable manifesting. The first step is testing. Once I know exactly where it stops working, I can focus my training.
Testing is hard. Not hard as in “requires great magickal skill” or “requires many hours of work.” It’s hard as in scary, as in facing the Resistance.
The Resistance
This is Resistance with a capital R, as used by Seth Godin and Steven Pressfield. It’s when your unconscious distracts you and sabotages you from what you know you need to do. It’s procrastination, the kind where you won’t think about your work, rather than the kind where a plan feels half-baked and you want to mull it over.
Why does it happen? Well, once you have an accurate picture of what you can’t do yet, you can’t pretend you’re already good. Your unconscious will try to protect you. But if you let it, you’ll never actually become good. Every time I started testing, I’d feel my chest tighten, and go play a video game instead. That’s the Resistance.
Working Despite Resistance
People talk about “overcoming Resistance,” as though you first deal with your Resistance, then get to work. But that’s backward. The work comes first, then when you’ve done enough that the Resistance doesn’t matter, it goes away.
Here’s what worked for me:
I focused on each step of the communication. Engaging the right mental muscles. Making the message. Reading the reply. Doing all the sub-steps that make them work. My unconscious still didn’t like it. I still felt the tightness in my chest, but it didn’t matter. I can consciously direct each step, so I can do magick even if I don’t really want to.
Think of a carpenter. It doesn’t matter how he feels as he hammers a nail, just that he hammers it.
Working despite resistance feels like you’re just going through the motions. There’s no emotion or passion behind it. That’s fine. As long as you swing the hammer, you’ll get the work done and move past the Resistance.
Got Tips?
Share your tips for working despite resistance in the comments.
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.Tags: Quick Tips, Resistance, Testing
I can definitely relate, like when I am confident that a new technique will work but keep on finding new reasons not to go and test it. Or when thinking about what would become possibilities after success becomes a means of stalling.
I think that while there are times when it is caused by my wanting to protect my own pride, there are certainly many others where I’m simply afraid of the uncertainty and change it could bring if successful or developed to, dare I say it, completion.
I can relate to Big R – resistance. I seem to have a subconscious which tries it’s best to waylay me when I start to get the hang of a practice. Can make it very frustrating at times — working ‘harder’ and getting less and less of a result. Keep wondering why the old ‘sub’ is so afraid of succeeding.
Thanks guys. Nice to know I’m not the only one.