Becoming Aware of Your Resistance

Lynn-in-Chair1

Becoming Aware of Your Resistance: The Key to Surfing and Surviving the Chaos of Today's Uncertain World
By Lynn Andrews

Did you know that you are fearless, generous beyond thought, gracious, creative, able to shape shift your des­tiny?

You are! So what is keeping you from celebrating yourself, from living the bountiful life you deserve and can create?

In looking at the events of the past several years, I found a thread, a luminous thread that led me through the maze of chal­lenges we face today. How did the events of our time form into the chaos of the world today, as well as the turmoil in our own personal lives? As you hold up your star shield to the Great Spir­it, you see that there is a dangerous imbalance of the male and female energies on this earth.

We must balance the intellect and mind of the male with the intuition and emotion of the female in order to understand how we came here from nature and what we are made of. If not, then maybe we are lost. Maybe our evolution as a species will actually cease.

But there is a choice we can make to prevent that and achieve a critical balance. I believe it comes down to the one lesson that the Sisterhood of the Shields taught me over and over: how to give up resistance and pick up the shield of empowerment.

The events of this past year, in particular, demonstrated the turmoil of uncertainty. We have always lived with a sense of in­security, and until lately, most of us have spent our energy trying to ignore it or pretend it doesn't bother us. So how do we--as sha­mans--learn to make uncertainty our ally? How do we let go of our resistance to change, our fear of what is different? This has become a focus within my Shamanic Mystery School.

If I could teach you only one thing, I would choose for you to learn how to ride uncertainty like a wave. If you can learn to ride within the power of the wave, to allow its energy to pro­pel you forward, you can tap into a source of personal power.

Using energy in a focused, conscious way will reduce the sense or experience of chaotic energy for yourself and others around you. Chaos is a part of creation, and instead of resisting or responding in fear, we want to shift how we respond to it by directing our awareness to the beauty and opportunities it manifests.

Dynamic ener­gy is given off by an act of creation, and the energy that comes from the chaotic side of creation is powerful. It is uneven and somewhat like being in an earth­quake. This dynamic energy is un­certainty. But it is an amazing en­ergy once we tap into it and ride it like a wave.

The Sisterhood taught me to not stand and fight the wave, but to throw myself into it. Like the dolphins riding the surf line, when you relax and move with the current, you rise to the surface and maintain your sense of direction. Uncertainty in life is like that and we choose how to face it.

As shamans, we learn to see the energy between all living things - the energy of true power. I want you to be aware of the truth that energy is just energy. It is not good or bad, not dark or light, until someone or something focuses it. Energy itself is pure and unaffected in its original state and is incredibly powerful. By understanding and refocusing these frequencies, you can move into their flow and achieve the male/female energy balance. You can learn to surf!

It is your awareness of energy that al­lows you to begin to use it, to tap into its power to create the life you desire, to bring healing to yourself, your loved ones, the planet. Within that awareness, you make a shift of consciousness. However, the chaos you experience today is the result of your resistance to this shift.

Furthermore, through­out much of the world now, the economic field of energy is very stressed. This stress spills over into almost every aspect of your life, as you worry about how to support your family, as our countries move ever deep­er into debt, creating an instability that will become the legacy your grandchildren inherit. This all results in fear. Your inability to create mean­ingful changes in response causes you to put up walls of resistance, to separate from others, to fear and distrust those with whom you disagree on ways to improve our world.

So it is essential, now more than ever, that you look at the choices you make and why you hold resistance in your body - which, in turn, creates a block, literally, within your life force. That resistance depletes your energy, sep­arates you from Great Spirit, creating more chaos in your life and thereby in the world.

How do you shift away from resistance into riding the wave of uncertainty?

Let me offer a practice using the Sacred Wheel of shamanic tradition.

Find a place where you can be comfortable and at peace...whether that is outdoors or in your living room. Grab a piece of paper or journal and a writing implement. Draw a circle around you and sit inside of that circle, with your journal at hand.

First face South, which represents the physical part of spirit and the physical aspect of the energy. Begin asking the following questions, recording your answers in your journal: Where do I experience resistance in my body-Am I closing my mind to change? Am I experiencing illness or physical pain? Where do I feel stress? And finally, what would I experience if I let that go or opened my mind?

Then face West, which represents the emotional aspect. Ask: How am I responding, am I reacting? What do I feel? What emotions am I experiencing? And then: what emotion would allow me to flow with this change?

Next face North...this is the direction of Spirit, the place of inspiration and creation. The questions to ask here are: Am I listening to God? What am I resisting in my spirit and why? What is God trying to tell me? Finally, if I was working in concert with God, how would my spirit respond to this challenge or change?

Lastly, turn to the East, the direction that rules your mind. Propose these questions: Without emotions interfering, what is the rational response? What does common sense say to do? And then ask: If I was facing this choice with a calm and unattached mind, how could I best embrace this change?

If you have gone around the circle once and you have not yet released most of the resistance, do it one more time. This is like peeling an onion...with each turn, a layer of resistance will peel away. The chaos will subside and-eventually--you'll make friends with it. This is where balance is restored.

It is also where you begin to experience the freedom of letting resistance go, feeling the flow of energy moving through you again, and allowing creativity to bring new choices and new opportunities. That unencumbered creativity is the great healer that enhances your personal power, and is your portal into the energy field of a truly fearless, generous, purposeful, and bountiful life.

Lynn Andrews is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of over 20 books and workbooks beginning with her Medicine Woman series. Today, she is recognized worldwide as Western society's leading female shaman and mystic. Lynn is an initiated member of the Sisterhood of the Shields, 44 women who are healers from cultures as diverse as Panama, Guatemala, Australia, Nepal, Egypt, North America and the Yucatan.A leader in the fields of spiritual healing and personal empowerment, her Lynn Andrews Mystery School, offers a 4-year course of study and training in the Sacred Healing Arts. Learn how to enter the sacred Dreamtime to discover the mysteries and wisdom of life, how to create and use tools of perception and awareness that help you See, understand and choreograph energy and develop your own inner power and vision. Receive free gifts from Lynn! Click here for details: lynnandrews.com/mystery-school/mystery-school-early-registration.

"Life happens. Life in the flow."

We learn over time that nobody can solve our problems, but someone can guide you how to solve the problem. You may receive guidance through a teacher, a guru or even strangers that you run into every day. As we practice yoga we learn that the more we know, the less we truly know. Every day I am reminded how much I truly do not know; a very humbling experience.
Yoga teaches me to be present. To just live for being and enjoying life as it is right NOW. Not ten minutes from now, no five days ago, but right now. We are taught to get out of our heads, to release worries and fears of the past or the future and to only live for this very moment. Presence.

"Lead me from untruth to truth, lead me from darkness to light." ~ Buddha

Through yoga we are reminded that we do have a dark side as well as a light side. We are not to repress the dark side, but embrace that side of our Self. We are the yin and the yang. We ultimately cleanse the dark stuff we hold inside. We shine the light on this. We must make friends with dark side. Both positive and negative balance out the whole. Daily practice refines and improves our inner vision to see our Self more clearly. We no longer need to run from fears. Face them and say I'm not running from you anymore. So much is in our heads, so much dark is only in our heads, self-doubt judgment betrayal. Yoga grounds the body so that the light and dark sides of ourselves become clear. So much is truly untrue. But as we diligently practice we are able to find the middle ground and walk our centered balanced line in life. We gain balance in centered lightheartedness. We can have harmony in both light and dark.

"Yoga tells us that the world is actually a projection of our own thoughts and we can modify our inner world to manifest into our outer world. When our inside realm is at peace and in harmony, our outer world shines this projection back at us."
~ David, Jiva Mukti Yoga co-founder

Yoga is observation.

We can observe our world and see what part that is in us is begin reflected back to us. We can then see what part of us needs modification or adjustment in order to have our outer reality reflect back to us the peace, happiness and love we so greatly desire and deserve.

Yoga is already inside of you. Happiness is there. Yoga helps you peel away the onion layers to get to the core. To freedom. The deepest Divine connection to the Ultimate Light Source.

Come out of wanting and back into acceptance and Joy. A yogi or yogini can turn any situation into bliss. That is a yogi. Yoga is being now. Ultimate yoga is meditation. Just BE.

Yoga is love.

"Love is the light that dissolves all walls between souls." 
~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Through a dedicated practice of all forms of yoga we can participate in the world with a sense of freedom, unaffected from trauma, depression, anger, etc. The freedom is balance in both.


Maggie Anderson is a Yoga & Spiritual Teacher, Reiki Master Teacher, Integrated Energy Therapy® Master Instructor, Soul Coach®, Past Life Coach, Magnified Healing® Master Teacher and Angelights Messenger. She is the author of How I Found My True Inner Peace and Divine Embrace. You can contact Maggie at SpiritualCompassConnection.com.

"Follow Your Bliss. It's Your Spiritual Compass."