Resistance is Futile

Resistance is Futile

If you are a Star Trek fan, you will be familiar with the quote " Resistance is Futile". Start Trek aside, there is actually a great deal of wisdom  in that saying.

When we learn to examine our thought patterns, one pattern we may frequently notice is resistance. We all have a tendency to resist things that are not the way we would like them to be. This internal resistance sets us up for a great deal of suffering that we may not even be aware of unless we are paying attention.

We mentally resist many activities even though we know we still have to move through that activity. The alarm goes off in the morning, we may not want to get up, or we don't want to go to work. We don't feel like doing household chores. We don't want to deal with some problem in our life. Throughout the day we are constantly faced with tasks that we may find unpleasant or stressful or simply don't want to perform. 

What we may find unpleasant, some one else may actually enjoy, or perhaps feel completely neutral about. The task is simply just a task. It is entirely our own perception based on our own individual life conditioning that decides if it is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. The only real stress surrounding any activity is actually a product of our own mental construct. 

When we practice self awareness, we see the self created stresses we are placing on ourselves. We observe how we paint a whole picture in our mind of how bad it will be, or of how different we would like it to be. Not only are we envisioning the situation to be unpleasant in our mind, we are also inadvertently creating our own reality. By envisioning it as an unpleasant task, we invoke unpleasant emotions thereby causing it to feel unpleasant. Our thoughts become our reality. The greater the internal resistance, the more difficult the task becomes.

When we learn to recognize that we are mentally making a mountain out of a mole hill, we can learn to let go of what we are thinking and feeling about the task. Without the mental activity, it is simply a task. The task does not have to be viewed as pleasant or unpleasant or neutral. It is simply a task. 

A great deal of energy can be spent in bringing forth negative emotions as well as wasting time thinking about it. When we let go of the mental formations, and thus let go of the wasted energy spent on resisting the task, we are left with more energy to apply to the task. By acceptance rather than resistance, the task can actually be performed with much greater ease and skill allowing us to move through it quicker.

 

Michael L. Fournier