Blog

October 18, 2011

When you find the motivation to change the things that are not working in your life, you will find your stress levels go down. Imagine waking up in the morning and feeling you have the power to take the steps necessary to change what you have been resisting or ignoring. That includes having the motivation to pursue some of your dreams as well. In these challenging times, you have to learn how to think out of the box, see the silver lining and deal with the stress. Remember the book Who Moved my Cheese? The message in that book is to stop looking in the same place for the cheese if it is no longer there. In order to do this you have to master and learn how to overcome what prevents you from doing this.

Recently I came across a very inspiring video on Marion Woodman called Dancing in the Flames. Here is the link   Marion is a well-established Jungian analyst, who overcame an eating disorder and cancer. Marion reveals how she did this in the video. What she was able to do was to overcome resistance.

Resistance leads to stress and eventually to anxiety. Anxiety is different than fear. With anxiety there is no clear cut reason as to why you feel anxious. That means there is no action you take. It is taking action and seeing progress that makes us feel good.

Most of us talk about how we want change, but we do not know what to do and or do not take consistent action to accomplish the goal. Change is the platform by which Obama got elected and yet nothing has changed. Change happens when we learn how to see how what we think is fear is really anxiety and may not be  real. If it were real, we would know what to do and do it. It is anxiety that is paralyzing.

Since most people do not want to confront their resistance, they end up with smoke screens in their lives that distract them and keep them from dealing with the real issues. This is the root of stress and anxiety.

You probably have a lot of stress and anxiety in your life, the byproduct of resistance if you are or have:

1. Drama in your life sucking up your energy
2. Unhealthy habits that you cannot seem to change
3. Feel like a victim in your life
4. Self- critical
5. Doubt yourself
6. Fear  rejection

It has been my experience that the first step to changing anything is to recognize what is really going on. Once you do that, you can see the actions that need to be taken more clearly and take them. Nothing is “good or bad.” I never look at anything as being bad. It is just feedback. I also trust there is an order to the way things happen that I do not completely control. That is why watching Marion Woodman in Dancing in the Flames is so inspiring. She received valuable feedback from her dreams and intuition. We all have access to this except when we are under the negative and debilitating influence of anxiety.

To overcome stress, resistance, and get motivated you need to learn how to be calm and easy going despite with what is going on around you that is stress inducing. Some people call this going with the flow and are able to do it more naturally. If it does not come naturally to you, the best way to cultivate what I call “presence” is to start meditating. Think meditation is hard, think again, or better yet check my new home study program meditation made easy. This is my personal meditation practice and it works.  Getting motivated and overcoming resistance is made easier when you learn how to dance in the flames and have fun. Life is a game…that is why I say “enlighten” up.