Feeling resistance: what does it mean?

There can be many situations in life where you feel resistance. Vaccinations, for example, are something people may feel resistance toward[1]. The best-known example is probably the COVID-19 vaccination. It became clear fairly quickly that there was a group of people who felt resistance to it.

But there are also other situations in which we experience resistance. These generally involve risk and taking risks[2]. Just think of ChatGPT and how this new development in society is causing resistance for many people, because AI could potentially replace their jobs. That feels like a huge risk.

Throughout the day, you also get to see messages, such as commercials or even the news, that may or may not trigger resistance in you. Your emotions and how something is portrayed affect the resistance you feel. For example, when asked if experimenting on animals is okay. Depending on how it is portrayed, people often feel more or less resistance (source 1).

If it specifically concerns something that poses a risk to you—such as keeping your job following certain developments or during a company reorganization—then your reaction depends on your self-confidence, how “easy-going” you are, and the support you receive from your family (source 2).

So feeling resistance can say something about your self-confidence, your social safety net and how accommodating you are to change.

Effects of resistance

Feeling that resistance - for example, when a company changes - can have a lot of impact on your life. Namely, if a company changes and you feel resistance to it, for some people it can mean looking for another job.

Actually, that’s quite strange, because getting a new job is actually an even bigger change. The explanation for this is that those feelings of resistance can lead to burnout, and that the search for a new job ultimately feels better for people who experience that resistance.

However, if a company properly supports staff in a change, it can reduce feelings of resistance and even the risk of burnout again[3].

But the result of resistance can also be something else. For example, one of our trainees says that when he notices that he feels resistance it usually indicates an opportunity. And that's true, because a risk can go two ways: lose and win.

If you feel resistance to change but—like our student—choose to adapt to it, this often leads to personal growth, improvement in your work, better relationships, and perhaps even better health.

For example, at the resistance you feel to exercise for an hour three times a week 😉.

It just depends on where you feel the resistance.

Of course, it's a little different if you feel resistance when you have to walk down a dark alley at night. You don't want to suddenly get better at self-defense 😉 . In that case, a detour via lit roads may be a more convenient choice after all.

Resistance and confidence

As mentioned, the resistance you feel may have something to do with your self-confidence. A hypnotherapist can help you identify which beliefs —about yourself, or about the world and how you’re supposed to function within it—are causing you to feel resistance in certain situations.

In fact, you may feel resistance every time in similar situations. This is an emotional reaction to beliefs you hold.

With regression, a hypnotherapist can help identify where that belief originated. In your mind, you then go back to the first moment when you felt the resistance. This is often the moment when, as a child, you figured out that the world works a certain way. Then that rule was stored in your subconscious, but never updated.

During regression, you can update that unconscious rule with your current knowledge about the world. There are all kinds of ways to do this, and a hypnotherapist will help you with this. Sometimes simply empathizing with the people who were there at the time can already help you change the rule that causes resistance so that you no longer feel that resistance[4].

Like our student, you can then relate the feeling or situation to an opportunity rather than a danger.

In addition, you can also repeat suggestions such as:

"I can do anything."

"A risk is an opportunity."

"Everything is inventible."

"I can develop myself."

These are just examples. Depending on your problems with your self-esteem, a hypnotherapist may come up with other suggestions .

Resistance and your compliance

Some people are very stubborn or rigid. Not being able to handle change well is something people can suffer from. If you find this really super difficult, a form of autism may be the cause of this.

However, that doesn't mean you can't do something about it. In fact, research shows that hypnosis does a good job of helping you experience the symptoms of autism in a different way, which then allows you to better cope with change.

Even if you don't have autism, you can be less compliant. Not being able to be accommodating often means that you are also psychologically inflexible. A change in the company, for example, is difficult to turn from a danger to yourself to an opportunity for yourself.

Even in that case, hypnosis can help you find accommodating change less scary.

For example, research on women with depression and hypnotherapy shows that hypnosis is also effective in increasing psychological flexibility[5].

This allows you to practice mindfulness— noticing your thoughts and emotions, and learning how to use your own thoughts to change those thoughts and, in turn, your emotions.

For example, a thought can be rethought, such as:

"I don't like this change within the company."

Can be changed to:

"I am going to immerse myself in the change within the company and figure out how I can contribute to the change."

This allows for practice while in hypnosis.

Resistance and support from your family

It may be that your family relationships aren’t perfect, so improving those relationships can go a long way toward reducing resistance. But how do you improve your relationship with your family? During the HIN hypnosis training program, we’ll also explore the social landscape.

This is a kind of visualization of where you stand and where your family then stands in relation to you in an empty space.

A hypnotherapist will help you with this and will ask why certain people are in a certain place and how you would like them to be.

Then you get help saying certain family members in a different place. You do all this in your mind.

I myself did this exercise once, not because of resistance, but the effect for me was amazing. I have four sons and my eldest son was a bit more distant from me. In daily life this was also noticeable in our bond, which was for example less close than the one I had with my youngest son.

During the social panorama, I put my oldest son closer to myself. After the exercise - I'm not kidding - he called me. We had a very nice and good conversation and since then our relationship is a lot better.

What you change in your mind, in yourself, can do a lot with your unconscious behavior and even with the behavior of the people - your family - around you. This can improve social bonds, reducing your resistance in risky situations.

Resistance, then, is something you can feel in a situation where you feel some risk. In fact, this risk can have two consequences, a good consequence and a bad consequence. Whether you feel much or little resistance depends on your confidence and whether you can handle the risk well. It depends on how compliant you generally are, and it depends on how you feel about whether your family supports you and will help you if you do have a bad outcome.

Your beliefs and behaviors can be changed with hypnosis, so that you suffer less resistance and are more likely to take a risk; or stay with your work to make your life better.

Would you like to learn more about how hypnosis works and how you can use it to help yourself and others? Then join the free online masterclass for an introduction.

Or come to a seminar where you can work on yourself and see demonstrations of hypnotherapy.

Do you want to help people? Then enroll in one of our training courses. Training is available live online or you can take the classes in class. Choose a form of training that suits you.

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