Understanding Resistance: From Force to What Actually Works

Ever find yourself stuck in resistance – knowing what you “should” be doing, but unable to actually do it? In this episode, Lynn shares a personal post-Birth Healing Summit moment where overwhelm, exhaustion, and guilt led to total shutdown, procrastination, and scrolling instead of working. What shifted everything wasn’t more discipline – but a simple question from a loved one that revealed the hidden pressure underneath the resistance. Once she gave herself permission to fully step away from work, the guilt dissolved, the energy shifted, and creativity came flooding back. By Monday, she returned to her projects refreshed, focused, and reconnected to her purpose.

✨ Episode Highlights:

• Why resistance often shows up after intense periods of productivity and burnout
• The surprising question that broke through procrastination and guilt
• How giving yourself permission not to work can unlock motivation
• The connection between emotional avoidance, resistance, and creative block
• Why rest, play, and spaciousness are essential for high-quality, inspired work

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Transcript

Hello, everybody, and welcome to this podcast episode. And today I wanna talk to you about resistance or, um, feelings that come up for us that we want to resist, that we don't want to give into, and how does that impact us and, and, um, and, and our work, okay? So this is an experience that I had after the Birth Healing Summit this year.

I did the two-day live online, uh, Birth Healing Summit May 2nd and 3rd, and then... Which went great, and, um, it was incredible, incredible weekend. Uh, so much healing happened, um, some really good stuff. So, um, the event went well, and it was a lot for me to hold space and organize and make sure the speakers showed up and the, you know, technology and the...

It, it was just a lot for me to hold, which I love doing, and it was, it was incredible for myself and everybody involved. And it was also a lot, and I wanna just honor that for me. And then Monday I had to, um, produce and, and edit all the transcripts and the audio and the recordings and, and all that, and that pretty much took me till Thursday to get that done 'cause they needed to be posted and live on Friday.

And I also worked in the clinic two of those days too. So it was a busy week followed by, you know, followed, following a busy weekend. And Friday, and prior to the summit, I'd been working on, um, revamping both the Holistic Pregnant and Postpartum Body courses. And, um, and so that's another huge project that I'm working on.

And Friday came around, and I was just feeling this inner drive to work on the courses. Like, I wanted to, you know, get some more work done towards that project. But yet I woke Friday morning with just this, like, heaviness and this dread, and I had a podcast interview that I was, um, doing for someone else's podcast, and I got that done.

And then I went, uh, downstairs working, and I'm trying to get into it, get into my courses, and I found myself just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling on social media. And I just could not force myself to do any work. And I had a lunch date with a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a really long time, and I was really looking forward to seeing her.

And I pretty much wasted any work time that I could have gotten done by scrolling. And, um, and so I just... But it was so funny because there was not anything else that I could have done during that time because, um, I just couldn't get off of the screen, and I was just stuck there. And, and so I was, um, headed to lunch, needed to go drive 40 minutes to meet my friend for lunch, and I was talking to my boyfriend on the phone and just explaining, like, "Oh my gosh, I just totally checked out this morning and could not get any work done.

And, and I just really wanna get this, this project start... you know, not started, uh, but start- completed." And so I felt like I should be doing work on this big project, the courses. And he asked me the question, "What would you be doing differently than what you c- you are right now?" And at first I was just like, "Whoa, what do you, what?"

I had no concept of what he was even asking me, because I did wanna go to lunch with my friend, and, um, and so I was excited about that, so I didn't wanna be doing anything differently than what I currently was at that moment. However, I did pack... So I had lunch plans, and then I had playing tennis at 5:00, and I didn't know if I would have time in between to do some work, so I had brought my computer.

So I thought, "Maybe, well, I'll work in between these two events that I had that day." And when I really sat with his question and was like- Oh, I wouldn't have packed my computer, and I won't work today. Like, that's what I wanted to do differently. And as soon as I gave myself permission to not work that day, like, all the resistance just left.

And what I realized as I was talking with him and giving myself permission to not do the work, um, but the, the guilt and the, um, that was what was coming up is like, "Oh, but I should. I should be doing this work. I should be doing this." Yet when I gave myself permission to not do the work, actually everything just lifted, and I realized that the fear of not doing the work would lead to me not ever wanting to do the work again.

That if I gave into the feeling of not wanting to do it and I just didn't do it, that I would be stuck in that never wanting to do it again. And as soon as I realized and gave myself permission to not do the work, it freed that up and, um, and there was a shift in the energy. There wasn't that fear anymore.

And what I, what I experienced is that I actually gave myself the whole weekend, 'cause I have been known to work a couple hours here and there every weekend to get stuff done, and I gave myself the whole weekend not to work. And it is Monday morning now, and I am energized. I am ready to work on the courses, and I am excited about it now.

And, um, I just want you, if any of you are experiencing this resistance... And, you know, I think about, like, sometimes they say depression is us avoiding our feelings, and that if we just really went into the feelings and felt it, that maybe that would lift. And please don't get me wrong. I, I do know that there are chemical imbalances that create...

There's a lot wrapped around depression. And I also feel some people's, and not everybody's, please don't get me wrong with this, some people's depression is just an avoidance of feeling deeper feelings that they don't really want to process, which is exactly what I was feeling with this weekend of not really wanting to do the work and feeling the dread of trying to work, but trying to force myself to do it.

But when I just gave in, it did free me up. And so I just want you all to remember that what you resist persists. And if we can get curious about what we are resisting, and we can honor it and acknowledge it, then it can go away. If we don't allow ourselves to go where our feelings are wanting to take us, that's the resistance that's going to persist.

And I can guarantee you that our creativity, our creative energy needs spaciousness. It needs time away from doing the work. It needs time for us to go play and not think about anything, because that's sometimes where the inspiration can truly come through, is when we're not, I'm putting this in quotes, "working" so hard.

And I have learned this over the years, that whenever you don't think you have time to go take care of yourself because you should be working, that that's actually counterproductive because the m- if you work yourself into a tizzy or t- deplete yourself, the quality of that work is going to be minimal versus if you allow yourself the space, the freedom, the, the self-care that you really need, then you open that space up to allow creativity to come in, and then that can inspire the work that you're meant to do.

And I just hope that this is resonating with some of you, that if you find yourself ever resisting something, whatever it may be, really get curious with it. And I invite you to give yourself permission to give in to whatever the resistance is and see what happens. Stay curious with it, because usually when we allow the full expression of whatever wants to come up, whatever it is that we wanna do, and we give ourselves freely the permission without the guilt, without the shame, and without the shoulds, "I should be working, I should be doing this," we have to let all that go in order to really open up ourselves, open up our energies, open up our creativity to allow that to flow in.

And so I just give you all permission to give yourself time and space to fill yourself up, to do what brings you joy, and, and then see what happens. Because I spent a, a wonderful weekend playing tennis and hanging out with my boys, hanging out with my neighbors that just bring me so much joy, hanging out with my boyfriend, and it just has really reignited this fire within me that I'm excited to bring that to my work, and I want the same for you.

Please, we don't need to struggle. We don't need to force things to happen. I think that's one of the biggest things that I've learned over the years, is that forcing something, doing something out of fear never works out well. That when we can let go of the fear, bring in the love, bring in the joy, that's when the magic happens.

So I invite you to find the joy, embrace that love, and do what feels good for you, and then see what happens as you bring that to your work. Okay? Good luck, everybody. Thanks so much for listening in, and we will see you all on the next episode. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye.