Understanding Resistance to Change

Each soul has an original intention for coming into this life. A set of gifts, a purpose to be remembered and a dream life to be awakened and created. On the other hand, in the depths of our psyche there are unconscious energies (parts) that work in the opposite direction of the original intention of the soul.

It can feel like an internal war between opposing parts of ourselves. One part that overly wants change, access the authentic self (soul) and the purpose of it and another part that covertly resist it; sustaining programming and patterns that go against the original intention of our soul.

Often when we choose a life of purpose we don’t know how it’s going to unfold. Often embracing our authentic self and our gifts can feel scary. Often leaving something familiar can be very uncomfortable. But if we want to live a life that reflects our soul, we need to understand that change is inevitable. If you want to feel less lonely in theis journey, you can also read the poem "Change"

Even if change is inevitable and necessary, we resist it. Resistance is not something wrong but it is something to understand. No matter where we are in our journey, it is important to understand that resistance to change is natural. We can understand the nature of the resistance to change by seeing the transformational journey of a caterpillar into a butterfly.

Scientists found out that the cells of the butterfly already exist dormant within the caterpillar and they are totally different from the cells of the caterpillar. Because the cells of the butterfly are so different from the cells of the caterpillar, the immune system of the caterpillar starts to attack them because it perceives them as enemies and harmful. The caterpillar resists the awakening of the cells of the butterfly. In other words, it resists the change and the metamorphosis.

This can also be applied to ourselves where the caterpillar is the ego and the butterfly is the authentic self that is trying to arise. It can also be seen as the dark night of the soul which signifies the death of the ego. The layers of the ego are being killed off, the same way that the caterpillar dies off.

So instead of resisting the resistance let’s understand it. Let’s embrace it and see it differently.

Resistance is natural. It will take place inevitably. We cannot jump from old to new without some kind of discomfort, pain, overwhelm or friction within us. Our cells are shifting into newness. The "old" cells will resist the dormant cells within us naturally but understanding and accepting this resistance is key to our growth.