“Resistance is Futile”

So said the Daleks in ‘Dr Who’, and the Vogons in ‘Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ and the Borg in ‘Star Trek’ all said something similar.

This week I ran into a (metaphorical) brick wall in my personal life.

Well, I didn’t ‘run into it’ as such, it suddenly appeared in front of me – out of ‘nowhere’.

(That by the way is a different place from ‘the blue’ – out of where ‘good’ things appear!)

I spent a couple of days ‘banging my head’ against this ‘brick wall’ trying to break through the obstacle that had been placed ‘in my way’.

You see, I simply reacted.

My first brain or my ‘reptile’ brain saw this as a threat that had to be fought against in order to ensure my survival.

My primitive ‘fight or flight’ mechanism decided to fight.

But then, purely by chance (or was it?), I happened to choose to listen to a recording from a series by Bob Proctor and Mary Morrissey called ‘The Quantum Leap Course’.

It’s about Dr Raymond Holliwell’s book “Working with the Law” published in 1939.

By chance (or was it?) I chose to listen to Bob Proctor’s commentary on Law No 8 – ‘The Law of Non-Resistance’.

Now breaking through a seemingly impenetrable barrier is always possible, but usually it takes a very long time – perhaps as long as it took for the Colorado River to carve out the Grand Canyon.

Yes, some barriers can be broken through by using a ‘sharp’ force and expending a lot of energy and the expenditure of that ‘energy, whether it be emotional, physical or both has to be really worthwhile in both the short and long term.

The thing is, that when you and I are faced with these barriers obstructing whatever it is we want to do, be or have, there is a better way.

Several in fact.

Consider a small stream of water flowing downhill.

The water comes up against a large boulder – so what does it do?

The stream doesn’t ‘stop’ and start to carve its way through (which it could, theoretically, do); it finds a way around the blockage.

Or, if that’s not possible, it gathers behind the blockage forming a pond, or maybe sometimes a lake, until it reaches the top of the barrier and then continues to flow over the obstruction.

The French Resistance in World War II never fought a head to head battle with the enemy, a few skirmishes maybe, but their key strategy and tactics were to evade, disrupt and undermine the enemy operations, slowing their advance and eventually helping to turn them around into retreat.

They went around the problem and not headlong into it.

A new (or perhaps reinvented) kind of warfare instead of the long, costly, head to head trench battles of a few decades earlier.

For you and I, the Law of Non-Resistance is about two things:

First – when we encounter a ‘barrier’, expected or unexpected, you and I know not to rush headlong at it to break through or break it down, but to find a way around, over or even under whatever it is that is blocking the way to our goal.

But you and I also know that we need to consider and understand why that ‘barrier’ appeared.

It has usually been put there because we are already going in the ‘wrong’ direction or to show us that there is a better way of getting wherever it is we want to go.

And usually, an idea or opportunity very quickly makes itself known to us.

You and I soon learn to recognise these and stop beating ourselves up against the barrier!

Second – you and I need to make sure that we don’t place ‘barriers’ in the way of the people we are looking to attract – for whatever reason and in whatever situation.

That’s why retail outlets have open doors, and are warm inside, or cool depending on the ambient climate. It’s more comfortable for the shopper to be inside the store than outside.

That’s why we contrast the charges we make for our services against the cost for a potential client not to take us on, trying to do it themselves, or going for a cheap option and then having to come back to ask you or I to ‘fix’ it.

That way the prices that you and I charge for what we do are not a barrier to our potential clients.

You and I should constantly think about what we do and how we do it to see if we ourselves are creating our own ‘barriers’ to achieving our goals or putting up ‘walls’ that inhibit our interaction with others.

And when we find those ‘limiting beliefs’ we get help to replace them with positive paradigms.

I’m looking for barriers I’ve created and removing them and finding ways round those which are in my path.

How about you?