Resistance Can Be Sneaky!

Resistance can be sneaky. It shows up right before the things that actually make us feel better, like rolling out the yoga mat, lacing up running shoes, sitting to meditate, or picking up a pen to write. On an Easter weekend with that early-spring buzz in the air, I talk through what resistance feels like in real life and why it doesn’t mean you’re failing. Sometimes the “I don’t want to” moment is the practice.

I share how I work with it using small, practical steps instead of willpower speeches: getting the gear ready, making the first move tiny. 

The second half is a calm, guided five-minute meditation you can repeat daily. We use breath counting to train focus, then shift into a simple gratitude inhale and release exhale practice to settle the mind and clear mental clutter. If you’ve ever said “I can’t meditate,” this offers a gentle on-ramp that still builds discipline.

If this helps, subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s guest, share the episode with a friend who’s feeling stuck, and leave a review. What’s one habit you’re meeting resistance around right now?

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Transcript

Why Resistance Shows Up

Set Up The First Small Step

Healthy Food And Hidden Friction

Try Five Minutes Then Decide

Making Meditation Easier To Start

Little And Often Habit Plan

Listener Reflection And Invitation

Five Minute Guided Meditation Begins

Gratitude Inhale And Release Exhale

Return To The Room And Close

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Hello everybody, I'm your host, Gentle Yorg Warrior, and we are on a very special weekend, so it is Easter weekend here, and the energy of spring is so vibrant as I as I speak. The birds seem to be singing with an extra bit of sparkle, and though it is a little bit grey as you sometimes get in the weather in this region, it is not without possibilities. So I can see the sun behind the clouds, and it is quite earlier to record this, so I'm still pretty hopeful that we're going to have a nice day. But regardless of whether or not it's a nice day or not, my inspiration for the podcast today came from earlier on, and something that can happen to me sometimes. I'm one of those people that's exercised my whole life. I wouldn't say I was an extreme exerciser, but I do something every single day. It doesn't feel right to me if I've not done something every single day. But that does not mean that there isn't resistance to that sometimes, and sometimes I really do not want to get on the yoga mat. I generally I don't mind walking anytime, but it's important that I do, especially this transitional stage I'm at, a number of different things. And I've always loved yoga, but sometimes it is the resistance of getting on that mat. You know, people have this misconception that yoga is easy, and of course you can make it easy, but it has so many layers, and it it doesn't just work on the the um body, but I feel it works on the mind, and so many layers, and but part of the resistance to getting on the mat, in my opinion, is part of the yoga practice, but this can be on other practices as well, say bar, which is like the ballet workout, or Pilates and running and weights, and all the different types of exercises that we do, and it might not just be exercise that you might have some resistance to or you might feel a bit stuck in, it can be other things like mine. Is I know that if I do creative writing, it really helps me process things in life, but again, it's picking up the pen, especially in a world where there's so many more enticing things like checking the number of my downloads. Simply from the point of view that my podcast is starting to grow, and for me to be able to open a few more doors and to make the show even better, or reading a book. There's all different ways where we can kind of feel a bit stuck and a bit resistant towards doing things. So, how does one navigate through that? If we want to do that thing and we know it's going to make our life better. Well, with the yoga, it's like I'll roll out the yoga mat and I'll sit there for a bit and I'll take a few breaths. And now that I've got the yoga mat out, so for you, it might be the running shoes or I don't know what whatever, packing your gym bag and putting it in the car, just giving you a few examples, and I've got a choice now. Yes, we've got free will, and I could just sit on that yoga mat and not do anything, and it you know, well, so be it. But I know that if I do the yoga and I make or the or rather I practice the yoga and I I make the effort to do it, then I'm gonna feel better, my mind is gonna feel better, and then I'm not I'm gonna keep healthier for longer in my life, and I I'm gonna feel this burst of creative energy, which will then help me with my creative projects like my podcasting, and it will help me tackle my resistance to the writing, which I love to do, but there's these mental blocks that I can have in front of me. The same can come with food as well. It's like when I'm trying to put have like more juices, because for me, green juices really help me. Everyone's individual, and I'll never tell anyone what is best for them to eat. But I know for myself personally, when I'm feeling a little bit if I have something like a green juice, it kind of gives me a little bit of a lift and a bit more kind of like joy and a bit more spring in my step. But then it's the cutting of the vegetables and putting it in the machine, and sourcing healthy organic vegetables, putting it in the machine, and then there's a cleaning of the machine afterwards, which is takes a little bit of time, but I've got a very good juicer, so I can't complain. But there's always this sense of urgency, this sense of urgency about our life, and a sense of urgency of how we need to please others, please ourselves, get stuff done in a society where we're rewarded by action. But if we can take these miniature actions towards our well-being, then they can help. So today it's a bank holiday weekend because it is Easter, so there's a public holiday here, so you know I've also got to kind of take time to relax and things like that. So I did a 25-minute strength-building yoga sequence, which helped me build my bone density, and it means that I can then go out and enjoy the rest of my day, and then I did a 10-minute meditation because it's important for me to clear my mind before I do anything creative, and then it allowed me the space to do this. So, what if you are kind of looking at your running shoes and you really don't want to do it? Why don't you just tell yourself that you'll go and do five minutes? And then, after that, five minutes, then you can decide if you want to go longer, and because you're out there running, you may as well do a bit longer, and then you can take into consideration, oh, maybe I've got to get the train somewhere, I've got to drive somewhere, I've got to pick something up. So you can work out a time to do that. With the meditation, a lot of people say to me, Oh, I don't meditate, it's difficult. I totally get that. At the moment, I've got this ear thing going on since uh since a flight last year where it's like this pulsating sound in my ear. So where I'm used to sitting in silence, all I hear is that. I try to make it part of my meditation. What I do instead is I open the window so I can listen to the birds. Of course, if you're in an area where there's no birds, you can put some sort of background music on, and the chance of you having the same resistance towards the meditation as me is going to be very slim. But it could be that you just think, oh, I just can't meditate. My biggest tip would be to set your alarm for five minutes and just take some deep breaths, calm deep breaths, and just sit there and do that every single day. And some days it's going to be like honey dripping off a spoon in a sense that there's going to be this beautiful flow, and then other days you're going to feel like you are kind of like you are like stuck in concrete in the sense that your mind has this resistance. But like with anything, like learning, I don't know, learning arithmetic, learning how to drive, learning how to speak English or whatever language you speak, or multiple languages, learning any skill set takes a bit of practice and time. So rather than thinking all or nothing, try and do little and often, and that I find can really, really help in this process, and it will kind of bring it all together. So finding and um and cementing habits that are going to help build us and drive us forward isn't always an easy task, but the antidote is to do little and often to get things ready. So if you want to eat healthy food, make sure you've got healthy food in the fridge. If you want to go running, make sure you have the running shoes. You can put out your gym equipment the night before. If you want to write, make sure you've got a pen and paper, and perhaps if you want to get away from the family, go to a quiet cafe and write there. Whatever it is, it of course it may not be and probably isn't yoga or writing or meditation, or it may be what you want to, but whatever it is that you feel within your to help your soul, your well-being develop, what habits you can do each day. You can do it by supporting yourself, by getting the things there, breaking it down in in time segments, and just sticking with it the more often. Like, I really didn't want to do my my yoga this morning. I just felt like I just wanted to kind of like be, and that's fine, but I knew that it was important, especially like keep my good bone density, etc. So it's kind of weighing it up. So, you know, it's Easter weekend. I'm gonna have some Easter eggs tomorrow. I'm gonna celebrate, but I'm gonna have some nice healthy food as well, because I personally and my body doesn't can't take loads of things that aren't good for it. It's always been that way, which has been a blessing in some ways because it's kept me healthy, but then also sometimes you just think, oh, but I know that my mental health, my physical health, my relationships, etc., are better when I look after myself, and I know that I get my creativity better when I look after myself. So I'm really interested to find out how you, dear listener, how you work around stuff that's important to you and what blocks come up. And do drop me a line and perhaps we can do a show on that subject. And I'm gonna leave you with a meditation today that helps bring you back into focus. I'm gonna set my timer now so that it is just five minutes. So, you know, we're all busy, we can all fit in five minutes. Top tips for the meditation is either sit nice and cross-legged on the floor with a nice straight back. Always nice to sit on a block or a cushion, or if that's not available for you. You sit in a chair with the back nice and straight. The important thing is you're not slouching. And if you're doing something that requires little concentration, all you need to do is just pause this and you can reconvene the meditation at a time that is good for you. If you're doing the meditation, that's beginning. So just start to close your eyes and just feel as if you are completely supported in whatever way you are sitting, either in a chair or on the ground. And we're gonna do a counting meditation. So you're gonna inhale through the nostrils, and then you're gonna exhale, and you're gonna count one. You're gonna inhale through the nostrils, and you're gonna exhale, and you're gonna count two. You're gonna inhale through the nostrils, and you're gonna exhale, and you're going to count three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. So for the next minute, you just count your inhalations and then you exhale, and then you do the next number. And don't worry, if the mind wanders, just come back to that count. Just come back to that breath, just come back to that rhythm. Feeling, inhale, feeling as you exhale at whatever speed is right for you today. No need to force, just be as we slowly and carefully change the meditation a little bit. Now, as you inhale, you're going to count one, and then you're going to count one as you exhale mentally. So you'll inhale, exhale, and in your mind you'll count one, and then you'll count two. But in this part of the meditation, as soon as the mind wanders, you just bring the count back to one. So just say you've inhaled, you've exhaled, you've counted one, and then you've thought about something. Don't worry, but just inhale, exhale, and bring the count back to one. If you're able, then you get higher up in the account. So perhaps you get two, three, four, five. But it doesn't matter if you don't. This is all about having the discipline to come back into the present moment. So just continue with that breathing, inhaling, exhaling, and then counting with the discipline to bring it back to one again if the mind wants it. And I'll just be quiet whilst you do that. So we're going to breathe in and out for the nostrils now. And as you breathe in, the first word that comes into your head, something that you're grateful for. And as you exhale, something that you want to release. So I'm going to inhale, I'm grateful for this oxygen I'm breathing in. Exhale, and I want to release all that no longer serves me. The next thing could be as you inhale, I'm grateful for this spring or autumn weather, depending on which part of the world you're in. And as you exhale, you're just going to let go of all the unnecessary worries that you're worried about stuff that never came to happen. And so on. So, dear listeners, we got to the five minute zone. So, just slowly come back into the moment, come back into the room, and uh thank you for listening today. I've got a wonderful guest lined up for you next week. I'm so grateful for you, dear listener. Thank you very much.