Have you been wrestling with resistance on a daily basis? Does it feel like you are constantly hitting roadblocks in all areas, from mundane operations to big life events? If so, you’re not alone. It is a common experience for those who choose to walk the spiritual path with intention and dedication, especially when you find yourself in a process of initiation.
An initiation is a rite of passage, often including a powerful transformation and healing that empowers the initiate and leads to a positive shift in consciousness. Resistance is often a part of the process. Borrowing the Goddess Inanna’s warrior mindset can help you reframe resistance. Among her many epitaphs, Inanna is the known as the Goddess of Love but also the Goddess of Thunderstorms and War. In that capacity she is a fierce and powerful warrior who refuses to let anything stand in her way.
No Stranger to Resistance
In her most well-known myth, The Descent of Inanna, the Goddess Inanna descends to the underworld in response to an inner calling. There she encounters seven gates at which she must release one of her earthly possessions in order to gain entry. This is her initiatory process in her journey towards mastery. Contrary to how it might feel, initiations present because you are ready for the medicine offered therein. Often this resistance is unconscious. The more sophisticated we become in our process of evolution, the more complex our initiations become and with that comes a greater potential for resistance.
Reframe Resistance
Resistance often surfaces just as we enter a new paradigm. It is the egoic attempt to maintain the status quo. As fear surfaces around the unknown of a new way of being, the ego digs its heels in. Equipping yourself with the spiritual principal of surrender is one very successful way of countering resistance. In Inanna’s descent myth, she demonstrates the potency of surrender. In ultimately agreeing to give up her possessions at every gate, she leans into the process of death and rebirth that ensues, naked and bowing in humility. Inanna moved through her own resistance successfully and the energy of surrender that accompanied it was integral to her ascension.
Use Inanna’s Desire to Win
Draw on Inanna’s warrior energy to push through like a dedicated athlete who will not give up until she crosses the finish line. If you are feeling maxed out and overwhelmed by the process of your initiation, access Inanna’s determination to get what she wants. It is through surrendering to the resistance that it softens, and enables us to keep going.
Pushing Through a Psychic Wall
Working through the resistance can be accomplished as an inner state of mind or on a practical level through methods that bolster your vibration, enabling you to stay positive in the face of the challenge. A high vibration perspective is a byproduct of high vibration living. When resistance surfaces, we often wish to engage lower frequency behavior and belief systems, such as using drugs or alcohol, or succumbing to destructive thinking, and self-doubt.
But blocks of resistance can be dissolved with intention. Even in our bodies we can see how this occurs from the perspective of massage therapy. Spasming muscle tissue often presents as a way to defend or protect the vulnerable area wherein the trigger point resides, providing a barrier that must be worked through to break the pain-spam-pain cycle. This release or “pushing through” resistance sets off a systemic relaxation response in the body and healing ensues.
Tools to Move Through Resistance:
- Understand resistance as an indicator that you are near the finish line.
- Ingest only high vibration nutrition, the brighter the colors the better.
- Engage in grounding practices such as standing barefoot outside or doing a body scan using your breath to breathe into all parts of your body.
- Call on Inanna to help you cut away your resistance and alchemize it into love.
- Talk yourself through it. Positive self-talk is invaluable. For example, repeat: “I flow through this process with ease” to reinforce a successful outcome.
- Move your body. Go for a walk, swim, run, or simply stretch. Movement can help shift resistance in your body.
*Inspired by the wisdom of the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, this blog is an invitation to live as she does, like an Unapologetic Heroine.
Seana Zelazo, LICSW is a psychotherapist, spiritual coach and intuitive channel committed to helping us live unapologetically, by restoring balance within and without through the wisdom of the Sumerian Goddess Inanna. Look for her upcoming book The Return of Inanna: The Unapologetic Heroine in 2022. seanazelazo.com
