allowing and resisting

Many of us give a lot of our energy and focus to a resistance of what is. Giving up resistance and allowing amount to the same attitude. We look at the world and the people we interact with and, for the most part, we want the world and others to change. However, no matter how much we want the world and others to change, it simply remains unchanged.

Our energies are focused externally rather than internally. If we look at what we are contributing to the world, is it more resistance to what is? or is it acceptance of what is?

If our contribution is a resistance then nothing changes; for we place our energy and focus on what we don’t want.

When we contemplate this we might ask ‘are we advocating apathy’? It then becomes important to ask ‘has my resistance to what is actually changed anything at all?’ or do you simply feel angry, frustrated, not listened to or valued? There is a principle that we see often- most unhappiness stems from being involved in business that is not our own and in drama’s that are fed by overreactions to what simply is- despite out attempts at making things otherwise.

By allowing what is we disentangle ourselves from the drama of life that prevents us from enjoying what we have and who we are.

When we resist what is we forget to live our own life. We are each responsible for our own experience of the life we are given. We can make efforts to choose what reactions we make to our own lives. Psychological studies have revealed that one of our most common misperceptions is that tomorrow is somehow going to be better than today. By allowing what is, we have an opportunity to change the here and now rather than living a life where happiness and acceptance recede like the horizon as fast as we effort to run towards it. Regular tapping on our ’should’s’ and ‘if only’s’ is a practical way of peeling away the perceptual filters that keep us resisting instead of allowing that which actually is- the here and now and our place within it.