Exploring Our Creative Fire

"Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny."

~ Mahatma Gandhi

This musing will be on our experience and relationship with the information that comes our way. And how information challenges us to be with ourselves in a way that may make us feel frustrated and uncomfortable. Yes, even information so sure, like the temperature outside, can elicit numerous opinions, points of view, and beliefs. While it may be true that it is 59 degrees outside with winds between 10 and 18 miles an hour. It is not true that every person feels the same way about it.

“Resistance is the first step to transformation.”

~ Louise Hay

Living in the Question

There is an inherent invitation to a mindful lifestyle, and that invitation is to continually live within the question.

What does it mean to live within the question? It means cultivating the ability to wonder how information strikes you and how you feel about it. The body, mind, psyche, and Spirit are a continual flow of information to process.

The body, with its sensations, desires, cravings, and reactions, diligently works to let us know how we are. Are we listening? Are we willing to know how the latest news reports have landed in our tissues?

With its continual need to solve problems and come up with questions to answer, the mind is constantly throwing out ideas, thoughts, and even feelings about what we are feeling and sensing in an endless stream of chaotic consciousness.

The psyche, with its ability to hold on to memory, experiences, and information in an attempt to keep us safe, seems to never tire of throwing ammunition to the mind and the body, sometimes creating havoc simply so we have something to do.

And then there is the Spirit, with its quest for purpose, love, and connection to oneness, which, if we are not aware or willing, can often feed our minds doubt and even shame.

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.”

~ Deepak Chopra

Resistance to Living in the Question

Do you know why the Star Wars Anthology used “Resistance” as a defining term for those entrenched in the “Force”? Perhaps it is because resistance has been and, by all indications, continues to be the ripest space for nature (including humans) to grow and evolve.

Resistance tells us that we have hit up against beliefs, ideologies, and operating systems that were once imperative to us. If we are able to regulate and neutralize the idea that we are being threatened, we have a great opportunity to grow.

Knowing that resistance is present is the first step (as they say), and here are a few ideas that may indicate your resistance is present:

• BODY: When individuals suppress emotions or resist change, body resistance can manifest as tension, stiffness, or physical ailments. Acutely, this may be a tightening of the throat or gut; long-term resistance may lead to chronic stress, fatigue, and all types of physical manifestations, from stress fractures to cancer, as the body lets us know that we have unresolved or stagnant energy.
• MIND: Mental resistance can be recognized by “right and wrong” thinking, as well as the rigidity of thought, like “that is just the way it is” or “that is just who I am.” This type of closed-mindedness or stubbornness hinders possibility and personal growth as well as inhibits the ability to learn from new experiences. This resistance may create barriers to understanding and unwillingness to communicate or collaborate, limiting opportunities for development and connection.
• PSYCHE: Resistance in the psyche often manifests as emotional repression, denial, or avoidance of uncomfortable truths about ourselves. Unwillingness or inability, due to trauma, to be with past painful experiences. This resistance may be recognized as psychological distress, anxiety, or depression as unresolved issues continue to live beneath the surface, preventing healing and inner peace.

Once we recognize the resistance within us, we may utilize its presence and take the opportunity to learn and grow. To pause and invite in the ideas of fluidity, curiosity, and wonder about our truths while we practice listening to others and their truths.

Three Keys to working with our resistance:

• PRESENCE: Staying present with yourself and how you are physically, emotionally, and spiritually responding. What is showing up? Is your heart racing, your belly tightening, or your feet going numb? Is anger rising? Is your ego taking over, edging your connection through Source out? If any of this is happening, the practice is staying present with your breath and your body and in the present. While also questioning whether you have the ability and insight to stay regulated and in touch with yourself physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If you do, continue; if you do not, excuse yourself and take a breather.
• NEUTRALITY: As we stay personally regulated, we have the great ability to watch the experience from a place of neutrality, where black-and-white thinking is replaced with curiosity and a whole lot of possibility. It’s not gray; it is more rainbow in nature. It is a place where all of it can be true, and everything is possible. This place allows for creativity and Source to come in with new ideas, visions, words, and responses.
• COMMONALITY OF GOAL: I liken this step to being in the Venn diagram of life and remembering that we all want basically the same things in life: a sense of safety, a sense of purpose, love, and connection. If we can come from a place of self-realization, we have a beautiful opportunity not to be threatened by other’s opinions and beliefs. We can understand that our goals overlap, and all that is standing between us and that goal is an illusion of truth.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge my resistance when I feel challenged, as not only annoying but as an inherent part of my human experience. My resistance to living in the question when I am challenged is palpable and a perpetual dance within a mindful lifestyle.

By practicing presence, neutrality, and the commonality of goals, I am able to navigate with some sense of ease most days, and I trust that my ability will grow and that the ability of the planet to be more peaceful is a great possibility or question I am willing to live within.

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