It was late at night, somewhere around eleven-thirty. I was almost ready for bed, but some thoughts kept bugging me. To be precise, a sense of dissatisfaction was strolling in my head. These thoughts refused to go away easily and the only solution I could think of was “Making peace with them”
My day had been quite normal but I was having a hard time focusing on work. It felt as if something strong was holding me back from finishing my work.
Throughout the day, I found myself staring at the screen like an idiot. I wanted to do everything but write. I got up multiple times to make myself a coffee, washed my face, listened to some songs, thought of taking a break but nothing seemed to work. I stopped, flapped and kept aside from this particular work. The day passed by but I didn’t get back.
Here I was, now dealing with the ramifications of it.
This was particularly annoying. The bed was comfortable, the environment so serene yet my mind so chaotic!
As I got out of the bed, something was shining like armour- “My bookshelf”. I moved to the shelf as I knew I’d find some escape here. I wasn’t specifically looking for a book but one particular book caught my attention. “War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. I opened up a random page and the title read:
“Resistance indeed is Insidious”
Reading this I thought to myself if this was the reason why I couldn’t focus on work today?? I was literally taken aback and the line clicked so perfectly in my mind.
You gotta be kidding me, I said to myself. I spent a good amount of time reading this book later that night. The more I read the closer I got to the reason for my restlessness.
Resistance had outfoxed me today!!!
So here I am unveiling the villain of my life, Say hello to — “Resistance”
Rabbi Mordecai Finley says
“There is a second self inside you, an inner, shadow Self. This self doesn’t care about you. It doesn’t love you. It has its own agenda, and it will kill you. It will kill you like cancer. It will kill you to achieve its agenda, which is to prevent you from actualizing your Self, from becoming who you really are”
This shadow is what Steven Pressfield, the author calls “Resistance”
The way he mentions it “ Resistance will perjure, fabricate, falsify, seduce, bully, cajole. It is protean. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimetre in your face like a stickup man. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit”
Do you see what I am talking about?
Most of the time we don’t know this Resistance exists. Making it easier for it to defeat us.
On top of it, this evil power “Resistance” is smart enough to pair up with our rational mind. The way the author describes it
“Resistance is also Implacable”
It’s like an Alien or Terminator or the shark in Jaws. It cannot be reasoned with. It understands nothing but power. It is an engine of destruction, programmed from the factory with one object only. It is implacable,intractable,indefatigable. Reduce it to a single cell and that cell will continue to attack.
Think about all the possibilities if there were no Resistance, everyone would have worked efficiently on turning their dreams into reality. In the author’s words, there would have been no prisons, alcohol and tobacco industries would collapse along with junk food and cosmetic surgery. Domestic abuse would become extinct, as would addiction, obesity, migraine and road rages.
So in short, Resistance is that Voldemort of our lives who deserves an “Avada Kedavra”! The sad part is it’s not going to die in a single shot, It’ll keep coming like a Horcrux and you need to keep destroying until nothing remains but the end itself.
I am talking from experience and you should take it as a learning experience.
Call it a coincidence or not, the way I landed on this book was quite phenomenal. I literally felt my thoughts physically getting entangled in my head and that was so satisfying. Well, reaching these conclusions wasn’t that easy. I was definitely tired by now, and the bed that repelled me an hour ago now seemed to be calling me with open arms.
