#2 How the mind generates resistance
And what we can do about it
Yesterday I wrote a post committing to an aggressive new writing schedule. Today was supposed to be the first day.
Today, I feel tired, slightly sick, and easily distracted. From the moment I woke up, I felt like mind and body were rebelling against me.
I’ve noticed this pattern before, and I think it illustrates how our minds are cleverer than we think, and willing to conspire against our own best-laid plans.
Let’s imagine splitting my mind into two parts. The first wants to be a writer—he wants to be here now, putting words on the page, publishing them for the world, risking embarrassment and failure in order to do what he loves. We’ll call this part the Ambitious Part.
The second part of me just wants to be safe and comfy. He doesn’t want to see me fail. He doesn’t want to see me struggle. He wants things to stay the same, since the status quo is good enough. We’ll call this part the Safety Part.
Now, if my financial future hinged on my writing success, or I was letting someone down by not publishing, the Safety Part might be onboard with doing the work. He might recognize, hell, we really need to get this done.
But as it stands, there is no external reason for me to publish my writing. The only internal reason comes from the Ambitious Part. So the Safety Part sees only risk, only downside.
But… the Safety Part also recognizes that if I just give up, I won’t feel very good. There will be regret, shame, and sorrow.
So the Safety Part is incentivized to give me an out.
Now we know, through the existence of psychosomatic illnesses and the placebo effect, that the mind is capable of inducing certain physical states. Your nervous system can change your experience of the world when it sees fit.
By creating the conditions where I have a plausible reason to not pursue my goals, the Safety Part is able to fulfill its primary directive. What might feel like self-sabotage is really just self-protection.
Of course, here I am, writing anyway. But the liberating thing here is, by recognizing the above as a real possible, I can both acknowledge what is happening and take a compassionate stance. I can recognize my mind-body is trying to protect me. I can recognize that this “resistance” is really just a desire for comfort.
I can acknowledge all that, and press on anyway.