Fear | A Powerful Manifestation of Resistance.
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"Resistance"
Often in our darkest moments, we experience the calling from our higher self, urging us to move in the direction of a more meaningful life. We come to the realization that we have but two choices; to live in a superior manner, or to continue down a dead-end path that will only lead to more frustration and agony. Yet for some reason, we just can’t make any progress. We feel a strong pull from our higher self, but we feel a stronger pull in the opposite direction, opposing our every attempt to take a step forward in the right direction.
Steven Pressfield called this inner opposition "Resistance," and warned that it is the greatest enemy one will ever face. In his book: The War of Art he describes;
"Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet... To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be... As powerful as is our soul's call to realization, so potent are the forces of Resistance arrayed against it."
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art.
Resistance is the set of psychobehavioral patterns and habits which inhibit us from heeding the call of our higher self.
Resistance is that which opposes any movement from a lower state of being to a higher one. It's goal writes Pressfield being to kill;
"Resistance's goal is not to wound or disable, Resistance aims to kill, it's target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we were put on earth to give and that no one else has but us... When we fight it, we are in a war to the death."
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art.
Resistance, and the lack of ambition destinies many individuals to a destiny full of never-ending agony and sorrow.
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"Ambition, I have come to believe, is the most primal and sacred fundament of our being. To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls. Not to act upon that ambition is to turn our backs on ourselves and on the reason for our existence."writes Pressfield in his book Turning Pro.
Steven Pressfield, Turning Pro.
And thus, most end up leading more than one life;
"Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us."
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
"Fear"
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Resistance, manifests itself universally in different forms, the most powerful form being Fear, other forms include: Excuses, Laziness, Procastination, Projection, Anxiety, just to name a few.
Fear in response to something potentially harmful is a natural and healthy response, but here we do not only fear that which poses a threat to us, but also that which is our highest good. In his book; The Farther Reaches of Human Nature Abraham Maslow writes...
"We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we glimpse in our most perfect conditions, under the conditions of the greatest courage."
Abraham Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature
"True calling"- Steven Pressfield called this highest good we fear. To live in the service of such a calling is to centre our life around a form of productive work that we find challenging and intriguing.
“The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it."
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art.
Many though do not heed the call from their higher self, because deep down they know just how difficult answering such a call would be, or as Nietzsche puts it;
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"They fear their higher self because, when it speaks, it speaks demandingly"Not that they don't desire fruits of success such as confidence and courage which accompany self-evolution, but they are unwilling to undergo the discipline and pain needed to attain the said fruits.
Nietzsche Human, All Too Human.
"Fear as a guide"
The good thing though being we can use our Fear to guide us in the direction of our highest possibilities for as the American writer Thomas Merton wrote;
“What you fear is an indication of what you seek.”
Thomas Merton
Turning to Sun Tzu's The Art of War we get timeless wisdom on how to overcome any enemy in this case Resistance;
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, in one hundred battles no danger. If you know yourself but not the enemy, one victory for one loss. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, in every battle certain defeat."
Sun Tzu The Art of War
As the ancient wisdom advises, to overcome Resistance we must not ignore it or pretend it doesn't exist, but rather we should study the typical traits it displays to better fortify ourselves against it.
The defining characteristic of Resistance is its universality, to eradicate Resistance from our life once and for all is not a possibility rather we should see it as a part of human nature, and learn to move forward inspite of it's presence.
Due to it's Protean Nature, Resistance assumes many forms and changes so often that most of the time we are unaware of the ways it is opposing us. To try and combat this tendancies Pressfield recommends adopting the following mantra;
"Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. Resistance is the enemy within."
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art.
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The only thing to do after pin-pointing the form of productive work to us is to start taking action every single day, for the sake of centering one's life around one's true calling. Doing doesn't mean that Resistance wears off, but rather it will be there day by day, trying to lure one from one's life mission in seductive and enchanting ways, though it is possible for one to resist the temptations of Resistance.
The importance of doing so, thought Pressfield, cannot be overstated. The ability to master Resistance day-in, day-out is what differentiates those who have "turned pro" in their respective fields from those who are forever doomed to remain nothing but "amateurs".
"Turning pro is like kicking a drug habit or stopping drinking. It's a decision, a decision to which we must recommit every day. Each day the professional understands, he will wake up facing the same demons, the same Resistance, the same self-sabotage... The difference is that now he will not yield to those temptations. He will have mastered them, and he will continue to master them."
Steven Pressfield, Turning Pro
Sources:
- The War of Art.
- The Farther Reaches of Human Nature
- Psychology Of Self-Sabotage Resistance
- Human, All Too Human.
- The Art of War
- Turning Pro
Don't forget to have some fun.
Cheers!