Managing My Resistance: Learning to Flow with What Life Offers
One of the things that interests me most about conflict is the tendency to resist it and the ways in which this resistance causes me to miss key moments, when I might respond with purpose and intention but do not. Resistance is a reactive habit. When I resist, I’m on automatic, and I fail to spot the opportunity to respond with the conscious engagement of being fully present.
Aikido the martial art I practice and teach suggests that resistance escalates conflict. When I push, the conflict pushes back. Aikido replaces resistance with alignment and redirection. I change my view from “this person is attacking me” to “this person is offering energy that I can use.”
Aikido (pronounced eye-key-doe) is Japanese for “the way of blending with energy.” Ki means universal energy or life force. Ki Moments are those in which we are fully aware of our life force and our ability to influence our environment.
In aikido, the attack is inevitable, a part of life. We can influence the outcome of the attack by the way in which we engage...