Day 135: Relief Is a Sign You’ve Released Resistance

My contractor wants more money, so instead of me having to chase him down to see when he’s working, now he’s texting me photos all day long.


Yes, the same contractor who was only working about two hours a day when I was there is suddenly snapping progress photos like a professional photographer now that I’m gone.

Because he wants money.

I had a choice when this whole process started.

I could let my mind do what minds are trained to do, which is to constantly plan, predict, prepare for problems, and try to control outcomes before they happen.

We’re taught that’s what responsible people do.

Make plans.
Set goals.
Think ahead.


Prepare for the worst-case scenario so you’re protected if things go wrong.

That’s exhausting.

Especially because most of the things we mentally prepare ourselves for never actually happen.

So I decided before we started that I would let him do what he does and I would observe.

I don’t believe in planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

I go into it assuming I picked the right person for the job and let him do his thing.


That was the extent of my plan.


Now if you know anything about me, you know I’m a mostly reformed control freak who, for the last 30-plus years, has been learning to let the Universe take the wheel a lot more often while I co-create instead of trying to force every little detail of life into place myself.


That doesn’t mean my mind doesn’t occasionally try to pull me back into old patterns.


Last week I told you about my five-minute spiral over whether the pergola posts were going into the wrong place.


That was a perfect example of how quickly the mind can move into resistance and start trying to control an outcome.

And honestly, this is what we all do all day long in different ways.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a construction project, a relationship, money, health, business, or something much smaller.

The moment we feel uncertainty, the mind immediately wants to regain control by planning every possible scenario.

What if this happens?
What if that goes wrong?
What will I do if things don’t work out?

And before long, our emotions are on a roller coaster ride because our attention is completely focused on resistance, fear, and trying to manage outcomes we don’t actually control.

As I’m thinking about this as I write, I realized something interesting.

We talk so much about allowing.


Allowing abundance.
Allowing alignment.
Allowing life to unfold.


And yet one of the main things we allow all day long is our emotional set point to be controlled by fearful thinking.



I just realized, this, we allow! It’s funny, the one thing we’ve learned to allow is not taking control of our emotional set point.


That was a huge realization for me.

Because the emotional heaviness we feel when we’re mentally trying to control everything is actually guidance.

Resistance never feels good.

The more we resist, the worse we feel.

The more we move into allowing, the more relief we feel.

And relief is important because relief is one of the first signs that we’ve released resistance and moved back into alignment.

You can literally feel the shift happen in your body.

Your shoulders relax, your breathing slows, your mind quiets down.

Emotional relief is evidence of vibrational realignment.


A good way to move up the emotional scale to better feeling and higher vibration is to be aware of reaching for a feeling of relief you get from releasing a resistant thought.



It always feels good when you let go of something you’ve been in a battle of resistance with and replace it with a more allowing thought.

The more you do this, the better you feel.

And the better you feel, the higher your emotional set point and your vibration are.


Life starts flowing more easily because you are no longer fighting yourself internally.

This is a simple way to know when you’re being pulled into a situation you feel you must control, that will only bring you more stress and make you feel worse.



A Course in Miracles says that a healed mind does not plan. It doesn’t depend on itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill the plans assigned to it. 



Meaning, be still, allow yourself to hear your inner voice, your intuition, your higher Self.

Follow what that voice tells you.

That doesn’t mean we never make practical decisions.

It means we stop trying to force life from a place of fear and resistance.

And then we learn to trust ourselves again.

Today’s Gentle Practice

Notice today if there is something your mind keeps trying to control, predict, or mentally manage.

Take a breath and instead of immediately following the fearful thought, gently ask yourself:

“What would feel like relief right now?”


Not avoidance.

Not denial.

Relief.


Notice how your body responds when you soften resistance instead of feeding it.


That feeling matters.


It’s guidance.


With you,

Lynn