Unpacking resistance to Spiritual growth

Sometimes in Spiritual growth we fly high in clear skies. We feel like our growth is easeful and that the path is unfolding before us. Other times, the air is not so clear and we feel like we are in some kind of a fog with little idea of how to clear the air and keep moving. This fog is resistant energy, and it has more than one source. When you feel your growth or connection to Spirit is faltering or unclear, it’s time to clear yourself, unpack the issue and get to the source of your feelings so you can take the appropriate measures to clear it out!

Here are the most common sources of cloudy and/or stuck feelings and what to do about them:

Resistance from within: when it’s you that’s throwing up a block. The number one obstacle when connecting to Spirit and opening your Spiritual pathway is fear and doubt from within you. Fear and doubt go hand in hand, so I count them as one obstacle. Here are some common ways fears and doubt can manifest within you:

• Resistance to meditating, connecting to Spirit or generally working on your growth
• Questioning and doubting the connections and communications you receive from Spirit
• Actual fear of the Spirits themselves
• Feeling that you don’t want to make any changes that will upset the status quo of your life
• Brushing off signs and or guidance as “coincidences” or rationalizing them away.
• Not speaking up when it is clear you have a message and letting the fear you are going to be wrong stop you from relaying the message entrusted to you by Spirit.
• When you start feeling resistance from yourself on your spiritual path, the best thing you can do is celebrate you are doing enough deep work that you actually are affecting the subtle interwoven layers of your personality. If you weren’t actually doing anything in all of your work, you wouldn’t notice any change at all! Encountering resistance within is a sign you are making progress. Your resistant feelings really are just parts within you that need more love and are coming to the surface to be healed and released. Send love to your feelings and just keep going. Don’t let your resistance stop you – its not called a breakthrough for no reason! In order to have those great moments where things come together, we need to break down the barriers that stand before and within us.

Resistance from without: when it’s other’s energies weighing on you  

Sometimes the source is not you, it’s other people in your life who are feeling affected by the changes you are making in yourself. This in no way means you can blame other people for your mood swings – but it is important to understand that sometimes you may feel push back from the other people in your life as you change your energy. Because you are energetically connected to the important people in your life (friends, lovers, family, workmates), when you change your energy others feel it. As you change your energetic makeup, the connections or cords that exists between you and others also change by default. Other people can sense these changes - they can feel it even if you are not opening discussing it with them. This kind of change is like deep shifts in the Earth’s crust: you can’t put your finger on it, but you know something deep is happening. People in your life may become more distant or more clingy than usual as they sense these changes. They may become more argumentative, or more loving. They may even get nervous about you leaving. The fact that you are examining your own beliefs may nudge others to examine their own beliefs, which they may not be ready for. So, the end result may be that you experience other people’s resistance to the changes you are making. It also makes sense that you would feel these changes between you and others acutely, because aren’t you working to make yourself more sensitive to energies as part of your Spiritual growth? So doesn’t it make sense that you would become even more sensitive to the energetic connections you experience with other people in your life?

So the best action to take here is to examine and focus on the cords or resistant feelings you are having and follow that cord to see who is on the other side of it. It may be someone you know, or even someone you don’t, but the important thing is to recognize that others can affect you energetically. Simply having this information is often enough to release the uncomfortable feelings of resistance you may be having. To release the energy, practice cord cutting and invite Archangel Michael to guide you through this process.

When it’s from another time and place entirely

That’s right – past life events can arise during certain key phases of growth. As you work on clearing your energy, healing yourself and opening to Spirit, it is possible that old past life traumas or memories that are relevant to the work you are doing now may resurface. You may experience this as flashes of scenes or feelings in dreams or in meditation. Sometimes you may begin experiencing unexplained phobias or panic reactions that you had not experienced previously. If this happens, it is important to understand that these things are surfacing because your subconscious is ready to release them. The unsettling feelings or experiences are only showing you what is ready to be healed. You can do this yourself by allowing yourself to remember the past life event either by setting the intention to do so before meditation or sleep. You can try working with a Past Life oracle deck. You can do a past life regression tape to guide yourself or even seek out a regression therapist. The Archangel you can call upon to uncover, heal and release past life trauma is Archangel Raziel. The benefits of exploring any relevant past life experience is that you will gain valuable insight into the wealth of knowledge you actually already have as well as heal yourself of deep seated emotions and fears that may be holding you back. This really is the whole point of retrieving any information from past lives – it is evidence of just how wise, ancient and experienced you actually are.

How do you know which of these issues may be affecting you right now?

Ask. Ask. Ask.  Ask your Spirit and ask your Guides and Angels and Loved Ones to show you what the source of your resistant feelings are. Be direct with yourself and honest about what you receive back. Then try a few different techniques to move the energy out of you. Maybe you don’t ever really know the exact reason you feel blocked – does it matter? Not really. The important thing is to notice resistance when it happens, detach from it, ask for help from Spirit, be honest about your feelings, and work through it. At the very least, you will come out of the experience with more connection to your Guides and Angels, and with more knowledge and practice under your belt!

Trust that each time a fear presents itself it is because your Spirit is ready to release it and make room for more Light. Usually, emotions and stuck energy are ready to clear out once you acknowledge them and stop running from them or pretending they aren’t there. Trust that anything that happens in your growth path is happening for a reason and is there to show you what needs to be healed.  Trust yourself and your experiences – they are your true teachers.

With love,

Ashley