Revealed: Those Sneaky Invisible Brakes

Welcome back to Part 3 of our story.

If you missed the previous instalments, you can read those here:

Part 1: What’s holding you back?

Part 2: The Mysterious Gusto Factor

 • • •

Here’s a quick recap of our story so far…

For the healthy, happy, successful and fulfilled life that is calling us – we need to be ‘going for it with gusto’.

To do that we need to discover what ‘it’ is, and to believe it’s possible, possible for us – even meant for us. (If you need help with this stage, these 3 steps are a great place to begin.)

Then we’re perfectly primed to go for it with gusto!

We know where we’re going, we have no doubts that it’s the right direction, we are at the springboard for our happiest career and future.

And yet…

{Cue dramatic music}

This is exactly the point when those invisible brakes tend to be most apparent!

Those pesky invisible brakes – they’re the reason we don’t do the things we know we should do to create our goals and dreams.

They even stop us from doing the things we want to do, so we find ourselves mysteriously, inexplicably, not doing them.

Why is that?! 

While the answer differs for each of us – based on a complex blend of our personalities, our life experience and our identities – in most cases it can be summed up in one word.

Are you ready for the Big Reveal?

Are you ready to know the identity of our invisible foe?

{Cue drumroll}

What’s holding you back?

Part 3: Invisible Brakes: Unmasked

A single word explains all the mystery and confusion around those inexplicable blocks, procrastination habits, and holding ourselves back – and that word is…

Resistance.

Internal blocks, aka subconscious resistance, these are the invisible brakes that hold us back.

This is why we often can’t understand why we don’t do the things we want to do –  these blocks are below our conscious level of awareness.

So, in our mission to be living our lives aligned with our purpose – joyously going for it with gusto (and all the ripple effects of success and happiness that follow) –  how do we go about tackling this resistance?

There are two ways to approach it: 

1. Dig & uproot

One way to address resistance is to try to unearth these pesky blocks in our psyche, to root around in our subconscious programming and then neutralise the lifelong triggers and beliefs that hold us back from pursuing the life we want.

And this can work, it can be hugely effective, but depending on the modality you use, it can also be quite unsettling and disorientating.

I speak from experience.

In my mission to clear my own path to my dharma, I tried many different approaches and techniques to clear out the blocks that I knew were holding me back.

I had mixed results, but I also found that this approach was not aligned with my commitment to enjoying the journey.

As much as I was devoted to my dharma, I wasn’t prepared to spend regular periods in emotional meltdowns or dark nights of the soul, which seemed to be a common side-effect of some Dig & Uproot approaches.

2. Clear for flow

An alternative approach to eliminating resistance is to focus less on the blocks, and more on the forces that clear the way for our innate wisdom, creativity, confidence, clarity and vitality to flow.

Over the last few years, I’ve discovered to my delight that these forces naturally clear resistance!

It’s like having a fresh breeze of cleansing, revitalising energy blow through any outdated ideas or unhelpful stuckness, leaving us feeling lighter, freer, and less restrained and restricted by those old beliefs.

This second approach was my focus for 2020.

I spent much of the year working on a range of habits, practices and principles that worked, subtly and gently, to gradually clear away old subconscious blocks, with ease, calm and emotional balance. 

And the result?

As the popular and insightful spiritual teacher Pema Chödrön says…

“When the resistance is gone, the demons are gone.”

I wish I could bottle the feeling of realising that so much resistance is just gone!! 🙂

At first, I didn’t really notice the effects, (these practices are very gentle and subtle), yet I soon began to see the difference to my everyday quality of life and – excitingly – a new ability to go for it with gusto! 

I felt as though I was going through life at a new higher level.

On the outside, not much changed, at least at first, but on the inside, in my heart and mind, I found that I experienced more peace, joy, clarity, fulfilment, satisfaction, and what I like to call calmfidence.

It feels as though the old brakes are off.

I’m finally able to move my life forward – smoothly, easily, and enjoying the process along the way – instead of spinning in the frustration of wondering what on earth was wrong with me?

As evidence of my newfound ability to go for it with gusto, I’ve been wanting to write a story series for years, but mysteriously* never did…

These days, I just do more of the things I intend to do – so much of the old struggle, angst, and confusion has been replaced by inspiration, synchronicity and flow.

And, as I’m sure you can imagine, the ripple effects of doing more of the right things are an absolute delight. 🙂

These shifts and the simple practices that I worked with last year have been transformative.

Dissolving those invisible blocks has made such a difference to my productivity, my joy, and my inner peace.

So, of course, I want to share them!

And I’ll be revealing more about these mighty methods in our Grand Finale.

(Some of them are so simple you won’t believe they can work – but they really do!)

CLICK TO READ THE GRAND FINALE:

Goodbye resistance, hello creative flow…