Specific barriers exist to recovery and transformation. These barriers inhibit or even stop a person’s healing and transformation from knowledge to wisdom. While resistance is a normal part of the change process, it can stop you from transforming your life unless understood adequately and appropriately. Resistance is primarily a psychological process whereby your unconscious program resists or attempts to prevent any new knowledge or information that differs from its inherent structure from being considered or accepted for implementation by the individual.

The first step in moving past your resistance to change is awareness. It is vital to your process and progress in the transformation that you know that you are resisting change, resisting what you need to think and do to change, and, as a result, engaging in self-sabotage. Knowing how you resist change helps you move past your resistance and continue your recovery and transformation. When we adequately understand resistance, we can use it to help us continue to change and ensure the change is permanent.

Below are four prevalent, detrimental, and even harmful forms of resistance that can stop your efforts to change and transform your life. These forms of resistance are thought patterns that operate or function in your mind at an unconscious level. However, we can become aware or conscious of and change them, allowing us to continue our transformation.

Impatience

Impatience is one of the most common and powerful forms of resistance. Being impatient is when a person wants the rewards or destination of the process of change but without having to do the specific work necessary to achieve a state of wisdom. Impatience is based on an allegiance to immediate or instant gratification to live life. The solution is to practice patience in all your daily affairs.

Not Following Suggestions

Suggestions are ideas or thoughts from another person designed to assist your journey from knowledge to wisdom. Resistance occurs when you do not accept or openly refuse to consider the ideas and thoughts given by another individual to help you successfully travel the road from knowledge to wisdom. The solution is to follow all the suggestions given to you by your therapist without question.

Procrastination

Procrastination is a powerful form of resistance in that the individual constantly puts off doing what he knows he needs to do for his well-being and transformation. Procrastination is continually avoiding the vital work necessary to change one’s life. One place that procrastination will show up in your work of transformation is with the implementation of the Daily Health Plan. Procrastination is about believing that you do not deserve change and transformation. The solution is to know that you are procrastinating but do what you resist anyway.

Creating Excuses

Excuses are seemingly compelling thoughts and ideas that stop a person from doing the work of transformation. Excuses will initially appear to the person as valid reasons to do or not do something another person has suggested to help them transform their lives. Excuses are used to stop a person from carrying out his Daily Health Plan. The solution is when you become aware of the excuse stopping you do what you initially planned.

Ask another person

While it is essential to occasionally ask yourself if you are resisting change if you think you might be resisting the work necessary to transform your life but are unsure, it is equally important to ask another person. While having insight into your resistance is essential, you should also ask your therapist or a trusted critic if they detect any resistance patterns you may be running or using to avoid change. Sometimes, another person can see our blind spots much better than we can, and in the process, pointing them out to us helps us move past them and continue our transformation.

Dr. Harry Henshaw

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