Often in our day we face such instances where we understand and know that doing something, or investing our time and effort into, or starting it, or progressing more in it would be beneficial for us, right now or in/for the future - but we have this resistance with all these negative emotions come up inside us with thoughts and inner chatter complaining about it and wanting to do something we define and see and feel about as more fun. This is what I talk about here with an instance of me having to learn IT security.

Here I was faced with an undesired topic for me. Not wanting to look into it, open it up, study it, invest time and effort into it. Basically experiencing a resistance towards it with negative emotions kicking in and feelings of desire and want to do something else that is ‘more fun’.

However I saw that this topic is necessary for me to study and understand because of my work environment. So, I was tasked with conflicting interests: For one, understanding that this topic is something I have, and should study and learn about due to my work environment, and then on the other end I had resistance towards it and a desire to do something else ‘more fun’.

We often know it’s good for us

I find that often in our day we face such instances where we understand and know that doing something, or investing our time and effort into, or starting it, or progressing more in it would be beneficial for us, right now or in/for the future – but we have this resistance with all these negative emotions come up inside us with thoughts and inner chatter complaining about it and wanting to do something we define and see and feel about as more fun.

Despite resistance, we can keep going

However, we are able to still make a decision for ourselves. That ability hasn’t gone. It hasn’t disappeared just because we have emotional resistance towards something. So, we are able to despite that resistance and the emotions or feeling or thoughts we experience – push and move ourselves to do do that activity we resist, or look into that feeling, emotion or thought that has been bothering us for quite some time. Then we breathe in awareness during this process. Meaning, I have found that using my breath, breathing consciously / with awareness acts as a helping hand to get me through the initial resistance I may experience.

‘How can I make it better for me?’

What I have also been doing in this case of studying about IT security, is look into how can I make this topic, towards which I experience resistance and isn’t really a topic where I jump up and down filled with joy about investing my time and effort into – more fun and more enjoyable for me. Here I saw that having a nice cup of tea and positioning myself in the chair so I felt comfortable physically assisted a lot in making the whole process more enjoyable and fun.