Resisting Is Self-Inflicted Torture

" Nonresistance is the key to the greatest power of the universe." -Eckhart Tolle

A Resister Becomes A Prisoner

Whenever I have to jump in a cold ocean/pool/lake, I do it one shot. I feel that that way, my body doesn’t have the choice but to adapt to the temperature as quickly as possible. If I were to do it the slow way – by putting one body part at a time – it would take forever and I’d probably suffer longer. Hence why, resisting is self-inflicted torture. When we resist the circumstances in our lives – no matter what they are, we add an additional barrier of suffering.

Let me be real here for a sec. I’m someone who is Extra everything. I love my extra-large fries. I love to do extra painful workouts. I love to meditate for extra long. My laugh is extra. Simply put, they call me Saby Extra alrights. While I love to inflict myself some extra torture during my workouts
(call me a masochist 😉), I hate doing so outside the fitness game.

If you are in physical pain, and because of the suffering that it causes, you focus a whole lot on the pain, you hurt yourself more in the process. While it’s probably likely that you want to alleviate your pain, your way of going at it does just the opposite. You are asking the pain to stick with you.
(what you resist, persists)

If you teach your mind that -even though you are in pain and you wish you weren’t –you are mentally strong and will not put all of your energy on the pain you feel, as time goes, you may start to feel slightly different. Perhaps slightly better. By reframing your mindset into a more healthy and helpful one, you open yourself up to the path of healing, rather than the route of destruction.

Resistance V.S. Resilience

Resistance is fighting.
Resilience is adapting.

Furthermore, resilience represents the ability one has of going back to his initial shape, after being bent, tested, hurt, you-name-it by adversity. With resiliency comes greater mental strength, as one has not let himself be defeated by pain, rather empowered by it. On the other hand, when one resists what is, he blocks himself from this opportunity. When you resist something, it stays with you, hence why it’s a counterproductive way of wanting the very source of your pain to go away.